Riverside/ Dows Lake- Week 18

Transfers are this week and Elder Wai is leaving for Halifax. Elder Hsu will be my new companion. He is from Texas and has really good Chinese. I am looking forward to getting to know him better. This will mean that I will have spent 6 months in Ottawa, 1/4 of my mission, or perhaps I will be here even longer. We will see!

A thought I keep coming back to over these 8ish months that I have been a missionary is "what will it look like for me to be a member of the church on my own after my mission?" or to put it in different words, "What does it mean to be converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ?" I have seen some extraordinary examples of faith by the members I have met, and I will write you about some of them. 

The first would be the branch President of the Mount Royal Branch in Montreal. He met the missionaries in his twenties and was determined to prove them wrong, and make them acknowledge that they were wrong. One day, he marched into church headquarters in Salt Lake and demanded to see the prophet while wearing a ridiculous outfit that I can not describe except for saying that it was still ridiculous despite being the 70s. He prayed many times about the Book of Mormon and never got an answer until he opened his heart and followed Moroni 10:4 when it says with "a sincere heart" and "real intent". He had a rough relationship with his family and particularly his father, but that did not stop him from going on a mission to Texas. He had a great mission and went on to have a wonderful family. But his faith was tested more, his wife died young, the house burned down, and he had cancer all in the same year. His reliance and unshakable faith is a testament to the reality of Jesus Christ and what He did for us. This man does family history work every day and goes to the temple weekly. He loves and serves the Mandarin speaking members of his branch even though he is the only non-Asian member of his congregation, and yet he connects with them in a profound way. 

The second individual I would like to write about is a sister that lives here in Ottawa. Her family consists of her, her husband who is not a member,  and their four children, 2 of which are in their teenage years and both have serious cases of autism and the younger two are both in their toddler years. Coming to church with limited help from her husband is a remarkable feat to say the least. Her older children with autism frequently yell out during the meeting bringing likely unwanted eyes from the rest of the congregation. She had us over for a meal once and things were understandably very chaotic and high tensioned. I could only imagine that what I witnessed was a daily reality for this family. However, I sat near them in church this last week and saw the way this mother loved her children and taught them about Jesus Christ. I was very touched to see the strong relationships they had with each other. It seemed clear to me that this mother relied on the grace of Jesus Christ not just as a "one and done, now I'm saved" deal, but daily, constantly, leaning on His strength to bear her up every day. 

Thirdly, there is this wonderful man from Liberia who came to Ottawa a few months ago with his wife as refugees. I met this man on the street while he was looking for the church and he asked me for the Bishop's phone number. The ward welcomed them and supported them in their transition to Canada. During ward council, one member reported that they gave them two coats. Then, confused, another member said "wait.. I gave them two coats!" Haha clearly these new arrivals to Canadian winter found that it was cold enough for two coats each. What struck me however, is that this man comes to the church building every Saturday morning to help clean. He does not care if it his turn or not. He goes teaching with the missionaries and says hi to everyone on Sunday even if they do not understand what he is saying! He just smiles and shakes hands. To me, he has internalized what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. He is a team player regardless of the fact that he has switched positions and is now halfway across the playing field. 

There are several more I could write, but I will keep it at that for now. Love you lots!