This week has been filled with some interesting events that were fun and exciting, and a bit scary.  On Sunday we were sustained in the Halifax 1st Ward as Primary workers.  After an hour in the nursery we were interviewed by Pres. Glanfield, a counselor in the stake presidency, and he called Elder Tiffany to be 2nd counselor in the YSA Branch presidency.  So, Sis. Tiff will teach the children ages 8-10, while Elder Tiff attends branch presidency meetings.


Sister Tiff -
surrounded by little ones!

David - a favorite with Sophie

 

Primary munchkins in the front, and Dave and Eric in the back.  These men are dental students from Utah, studying at Dalhousie University in Halifax.  Halifax 1st Ward has a large number of Utah dental students.

 

 

Bro. and Sis. Madsen are among the dental students who spend 4 years here.  Elder T was privileged to assist in the blessing of their baby at church.

 

 

Sisters Hart, Drew, and Ott enjoying a dinner at our apartment.  Sis. Drew is another 19 year-old missionary just arriving a week or so ago, from Alberta.  Right now there are just 3 sisters in the area until the next wave of incoming missionaries.

 

 

We're in the sisters' apartment.  It's labeled as the nicest in the mission, so we had to get a peek of it.  It is very nice.

 

 

And this is the locater sign for our home away from home.  We're at

210 Glenforest Drive.

 

 

Here we have a front view of our apartment building, with Sis. T sitting on the bench (can you see her?).

 

 

About 5 minutes from our place is the Halifax Harbor.  This is the shipping container lot where very large cargo ships unload and load containers going to and from ports all over the world.  We told our kids to spray paint our name on our container at home with all of our furnishings, so that we could pick it out if it ever came through this port.  So far we haven't seen it (maybe we missed it!).

 

These are the huge cranes that move the containers from ground to ship.  It's hard to get good pictures of this area because it's right on a main highway and there's no place to stop for pictures.

 

 

We've talked about a favorite restaurant of ours called "Wharf Wraps."

This is it, nothing fancy, with the fishermen's dock behind. 

 

 

Sister T enjoying an order of fish and chips at Wharf Wraps.  Look at the size of that one piece of haddock!

 

 

This ocean vessel is an automobile carrier.  Not sure how many cars they can get in there because it's about 600 or 700 feet long - about the same size as the container ships we see just about everyday.

 

This is the chapel in Kentville, about 60 miles from us.  When we lived here they didn't have a chapel, so this is great to see.  It does show the growth of the church in Nova Scotia.

 

We were sitting in on a seminary class in Kentville, then an inservice with the teachers afterwards.

 

 

We took a short drive east of Halifax/Dartmouth, and saw this beach.  It's not a swimming and tanning beach, the water is the normal frigid North Atlantic, and, as you can see, even Sister T is bundled up against a very cold wind.

 

 

And Elder T is not basking in the sun either!

 

 

Joni and Melissa - braving the cold March winds.

 

 

This is a little farther down the beach.  If you look really closely you can see three black dots out there in the water.  Those are SURFERS!  Can you believe that?!  They're nuts!! The North Atlantic in August is still very cold!!!!

 

 

This is Shane, and he said we could take a picture of him before he goes out to surf with the others.

 

 

 

Saint Mary's University (founded 1802) is even older than Dalhousie University where we teach, and is located fairly close to downtown Halifax.

 

 

Main building - Saint Mary's University.

 

 

On Sunday evening we watched a CES broadcast of Elder Bednar, 4 hours after church let out.  These young single adults stayed at the church and played board games all during their wait.  Clockwise from Kate in the front, we have Tyler, Connie, Corey, Mark, and Amber. Our CES broadcast was at 9 PM as we are 3 hr. ahead of Utah

 

 

 

Elder David A. Bednar,

Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

One of the many memorable statements he made in his CES broadcast was:

"Not shrinking is more important than surviving."   (He was quoting Elder Maxwell)  He was talking about accepting the Lord's will when we pray for relief from pain and suffering.  Are we willing to accept the Lord's will if He doesn't heal us or take away our pain?  The results of strong faith are still according to God's will.