CTM

Seniors Christmas Party

18 of the Senior Missionareis gathered at the Employment Center to celebrate Christmas.  We were happy to gather there, as you know spaces are limited when it gets near to Christmas.  We had a really enjoyable evening of visiting and some videos of the live nativities which were done by church members in the area, and we had a family story by Elder and Sister Caldwell.

This was a celebration in the smae place early December, only 10 senior missionaries together this time for Pizza!

6 Weeks Has Gone By Already!

I can not believe that another 6 weeks has gone by already. At this rate I'll be home in no time.  We still have green grass, it rained a few times over the past two weeks and I am ENJOYING it!  What else is new? We have already had three Christmas dinners.  The other senior missionary couple had us over for their Thanksgiving Turkey dinner as well, so at this point I am considering fasting three days per week! Either that or become seriously short of clothing that fits!

Also new in the office is Christmas packages.  Here is a picture of Elder Stark and myself around the packages.  We've sent out two times already to all the different areas in the mission, and these next two weeks will be more packages out as we do Zone Conferences.  We have transfers this week and two Zone conferences.  The next week we have two zone conferences as well.  We will be having the opportunity to share the workload with a service missionary who will be helping in the office.  We will likely have a second service missionary soon.  Well I hope you all are having as blessed of a Christmas season as we are here in the Canada Toronto Mission.  The attached pictures are all at the office.  It was Zone Leader Council and the Zone leaders were given the Santa Hats by the other office mission couple.  the Zone leaders can wear the hats as they hand out Christmas packages to the missionaries.  We love you all and wish you well, Sister and Elder Stark.

The Last Fall Walk In Brampton

Here are some pictures of the lake around our apartment in Brampton.  In the one picture you can see the apartment from the road and over the lake, it is the second one in the background.  We went for a walk, and I do believe we found the home of the wookchuck.  Here is Elder Stark and myself walking across a pier, it is more needed in the spring than the fall, but it was fun to go for our last fall walk.    This pier is across the small lake which is behind our apartment.    My mom asked me what the name of the lake was and I did not know that the lake was large enough to have a name, we finally found out what the name of that lake was,  Esker Lake. The above middle picture is the view of the lake from the road.  The pier would be off to the right, across from the lake from the apartment.

6 Months in the Mission Field

I really am enjoying having a fall season. Today was the first day that I actually put on a winter coat and winter boots. We saw a few snow flakes yesterday at about 10:00 at night, but the kind that melted as soon as they landed on the ground. There is still green grass outside and ther flowers are just now showing signs of dying due to cold weather. In Edmonton, especially when I was younger, I remember the fall season lasting all of about 3 weeks, and then winter. It is no wonder I never really liked fall, it was just a short anouncement that winter was coming.



P-day at the office.

We weathered "Frankenstorm" rather well. We only had weather advisory for severe wind. Any of you who may have been watching the news may have heard there was one casualty in Toronto, a woman was hit by a sign which blew off a large pole, she did not survive. That was the day that many of our missionaries were driving in the wee hours of the morning because it was transfer day. There were a vew precarious driving conditions, but every one was fine and transfer day went just fine.
 
Elder Stark and myself have had a few new and interresting duties added to our list.  We had to go and do some things for apartments, because now we have no housing co-ordinator.  We are at the point where we are considering to ask Mission President if we can just live at the office, for all the time we spend in the apartment assigned to us, it really does seem like a waste. The picture is supposed to be a P-day but we were still doing office duties.  At least we eat well! I have never before had an entire lobster.  They were on sale- and really inexpensive!  I can never get that in Edmonton, so that day we ate lobster in the office.




Stratford Film Festival

We went to a live performance at the Stratford Film Festival.  I kind of wanted to do something cultural while we were here.  It was an unusual play called, "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" and the actors and actresses were the peanuts! It was so funny, as the announcement at the begining of the play was "Wah wa wa wah-wah-wah-" and ect. then "brrrrr-rrrring" We all knew that they were requesting us to turn off our cell phones, but if you remember in the cartoon "Peanuts"adults were never heard, only blurbed.  So here are a couple of pictures of our trip that day.  We were with two other senior missionary couples.

Elder Starks Favorite restaurant

I guess you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy.  This restaurant impressed Edler Stark so much that he wanted to take several pictures of it. Not only was there excellent breakfast food, but at a price even ther missionaries can enjoy!  The restaurant is in Kitchener, if you ever wish to stop by.

5 Months in the Mission Field

I had no idea that the red maple leaves went from green to a green and part red stage, to red and then to yellow. I wanted to send some leaves to our family, unfortunately by the time I got around to doing it it was mostly only yellow leaves left, then they turn-on the ground to a brown. What a lot of colours they go through!
I can't believe it's fall!  We've been in the mission field for 5 months!  The geese are taking test flights and those fussy headed babies, which turned into awkward teenagers now fly and look just like their parents.  I'm lookin forward to the different colours in fall here, as in Alberta we mostly just get yellow leaves.  The Maple leaves are already half red.

Elder Starks Favorite Building

This is the building where the old Canada Toronto East mission office used to be in, that was before the combining of the two missions which occured in the summer of 2011.   The office is on the top floor of this stake center.   The Stake Center is now home to only two small branches.  

The September Transfer Day

September Transfer was the largest for incoming missionaries.  I believe at last count there were 23.

You would think the number wouldn't change, but it does for  variety of reasons.  This transfer also occurred at a month where we had Zone meetings, this gets us behind in our office duties because we have to spend at least two days per week on the road for three consequetive weeks.  We do vehicle placement to assist with missionary travel and we each do have a part in Zone training, we have four different places in the province for one set of Zones.  These are a few pictures taken on transfer day.

Unusal Buildings

The Toronto area has unusual buildings, what I mean is different from in Edmonton.  There are all kinds of shapes and sizes- and it is not the usual to see a square building. all kinds of circular, semi circular and just multi -curved.  Here are only a few.

Dancing in the Streets at Woodstock

Yes it seems funny that Elder Stark and I were actually dancing in the streets at Woodstock.  It was another working P-day, we were trabelling in the province and had vehicles to fix and vehicle paperwork to deliver. The sister missionaries and elder Stark and myslef were trying to find a place to eat lunch, the entire downtown was blocked off, there were outdoor vendors, and music.  One of the sister missionaries video taped this,  just to hear her contagious laugh will make your day!  Have a great day!  Love Sister and Elder Stark.

I apologize, the video clip never did downlaod properly, I attempted twice.  I guess all of our friends will just have to visit us when we return to see it!

Chinguacousy Park in Brampton

Chinguacousy Park is also very near our new apartment home.  It takes about three minutes by car, it is on the other side of the shopping center from our apartment.  In this lovely area are geese, ducks, walking paths, a small bunny hill for snowskiing on in the winter and music and carnivals etc in the summer.  I have had opportunity to go through the park during special events on two occasions and give out pass a long cards.  These pictures were taken on one evening Elder Stark and I spent there on date night. I was enthralled with the geese and watched them for over two hours, it seemed like hardly any time at all.  We were sitting on a bench and the family of geese were about six feet in front of us.                                                                                                                   

The two adult geese take turns being on the look-out for danger, as you can see there is always one watching while the other goes down for a bit of grass.  They look after their young carefully.

The gooslings in these two families of geese were a little older, as can be seen by their size

Toronto-many brick homes-some flowers too

There used to be a brick factory near the first home we had in the country just outside of Brampton. the clay there is red, I guess perfect for making brick. That would likely explain the many many brick homes which we found when we drove through the Toronto area.

Other Senior Couples in the Mission





19 couples in the mission



We have a variety of Senior missionaries serving in the Canada Toronto Mission.  They serve as teachers of Institute classes, employment workers, Public Affairs, full time Temple workers, Mission Office workers and of course member and leadership support.  All are called by God and are invalualbe to the Mission Purpose, that of inviting others to come to God by having Faith in Christ, being baptized, recieving the spirit and enduring to the end.  Senior missionaries know a little bit about enduring to the end, as many have been serving the Lord for years.  This knowledge, experience and example can be of great benefit to many at what ever stage they may be at in their walk with the Lord.





We were able to get to Niagra Falls

We were able to get to Niagra Falls.
It was the first time for both of us.  We actually arrived there the morning after that person tight roped across the Falls.  We had seen the very large lighting systems and other stuff that had been set up for the event the night before being taken down while we were there.  It was better than the pictures I was able to take, but here are a few.



Over in the distance the water is falling over the edge.

Our New apartment in Brampton!

Yes, we live in a busy urban center, we have a mall one block from our homes and a freeway 1 minute from our home, isn't it unbelievable then that 5 minutes walk from our apartment door we have trails and a lake!! We've watched the geese grow up to now looking almost like the grown ones. It is an unbelievable place for a stress break I Love it!!