Now I'm caught up!! Yay! I must do better.

This is what he means when he says it looks like Idaho.

Ice Hotel picture

Chicoutimi: I think it looks a lot like downtown Binghamton with the river and the bridges. I've google Chicoutimi and learned that one of the steepest streets in the world is in Chicoutimi! It has an 18% grade!

This is the cross on the hill that he and his companion got up early to see.

Sorry this is sideways. I have to figure out how to turn it right-side up. I believe this is the "contact" Calvin was talking about when he and his companion were out on the lake. We thought this was a pretty fun picture.

I wrote a repentance letter to Calvin, asking forgiveness for not writing him on Monday. I do send little messages throughout the week when I think of them (so I don't forget what I wanted to tell him when I write my big letter to him) so he did have at least one small message from me last week. Sister Cannon had sent us a picture of the Zone Activity, but since there are more missionaries than just Calvin in the picture, I can't share it. I did notice, however, that Calvin was one of about 5 missionaries (all boys, the sisters know better!) who DIDN'T HAVE A HAT ON! If you google "ice hotel Quebec city" you can see what ice hotel he's talking about. It's gorgeous! This is his letter from yesterday (11 February, 2013):

Hey Momm!!!!!!!!

  So, what has happened, well we went to the ice hotel, which was pretty awesome!! I'll try to send some pictures, then we had zone conference the next day, which was epic, president talked about a lot of things I had been wondering about, like how to work better with members, etc. Then, we drove all the way back from Quebec City to Chicoutamie (again, more pictures to send) Went to the hospital to find a potential investigator to whom we had given chocolate before, so that we could talk with her, and talk to the lady [my companion] wanted to talk to. We didnt find them. Instead we found this lady and I wanted to talk to her. We talked to her, then made an appointment for the next day with her. The next day, went back to the hospital to talk with her and share Alma 7:11-13 and then got kicked out of the hospital halfway through. Hope she is doing ok, i was worried when she said if God loved her he would let her die. the next day we had splits with our District leader, who works in Haweksbury. He had a split with the missionaries in Alma (yes I live only 30-40 minutes away from Alma) so they split us right afterwards. His companion is from Tahiti, and is about 6' 11 (?) and 270lbs(?) he's a big guy! [Can you imagine living in Tahiti all your life, and then going to North Canada on your mission?!] That was a lot of fun!  So, after that, our days were pretty normal. We found some really cool potential investigators this week, so we are hopeful. lets see, not much else went on this week, just the normal stuff. We knocked some doors, we taught some people, I spoke some French and tried to understand Quebecquoi, it was a pretty regular week. Oh, we knocked into an Evangelical yesterday, who told us to go read the Bible again, because we didnt understand it because we believe in another prophet. That was fun! Did i tell you I finally met some Jehovas Witnesses? 

  Oh, so I got the Birthday Package!!! I was soooooooo happy to get it! i kept pestering my zone leaders about it because for a little bit they didnt know where it was in the chapel, but we found it. I loved it!!!! I only have one question, what on earth am I going to do with an Ice cube that big? I loved the leaves, and the miniatures! And the calander was awesome! Thank you so much! Oh, the chocolate dice was pretty cool! and the Yoda pez dispenser was funny! and I was most grateful for the letters! Thanks so much! Oh, the granola was delicious! [yah, I forgot to mention the comic character calendar Todd put in, and the chocolate dice and the granola I threw in at the last minute. Calvin LOVES my homemade granola.]

  Well, for now that's all from me! Love you!

Calvin

Momm I love you

After I got his email, I realized that it was a Zone Conference day, so I was kind of expecting to see the next email from Sister Cannon. What I wasn't expecting was the violin! All day it seemed like there was a "violin thread" going on: while I was driving Miranda to get her new glasses, they had my favorite violin concerto on the public radio station, I had to practice my violin for the funeral I was to play at the next day, and other violin things I can't remember. So imagine when I open this email to find this picture! Another tender mercy from Heavenly Father! This picture touched me in a way I cannot explain in words. After the "violin thread" throughout the day, it was just hmmmmm, weird? comforting? Twilight Zone-ish? No, it was my son listening to those little whispers of "you should do this." Another tender mercy!

I am a horrible mother

Before I forget, this was a picture Calvin sent in his last email. Notice the hat! When I saw 

Last week was a little weird, and a lesson for me. Sunday night I felt like I should write to Calvin, but I dismissed the feeling because I figured I'd have time on Monday morning to write to Calvin. Very often we need to listen to those little whisperings and thoughts telling us to do good things. As I opened my email to write to Calvin, THERE WAS ALREADY A MESSAGE FROM HIM!!! At 7:30am!!! They had Zone Conference in Quebec, so he had written to me BEFORE he left for Zone Conference! AGH! Don't I feel like a horrible mother?! So here's the email he sent:

Hey Momm!!!!!
So, what a crazy week we had!!!!!! Let`s start at the beginning.

MONDAY: We got up at 6:30 in the morning to go to a cross that is on the top of a hill at Chicoutamie, to watch the sun rise. Then, we went (after emails and shoppiing) to La Baie, because the lake at La Baie is famouse for freezing over. The Quebecquoi drag huts out onto the lake to go icefishing, or just to hang out on a frozen lake, and they make what are almost like little communities out there. So we contacted someone on the lake just to say we had. We walked on this awesome frozen lake!!! Oh, by the way, dad, I found out that the air force base is in La Baie, and we saw several jets fly by. it was SOOOOO COOOOOL!!!!!!!! Well, I`ll have to make an abridged version of what happened, because we have to get going to Quebec for zone activitie, and zone conference. [Wait a minute, he's walking out on a frozen lake?! I have to add here that a universal rule in missions world wide is that missionaries are not to go swimming, or wading or be anywhere NEAR water unless they're baptizing someone. Some missionaries may need to be in boats to get to where they need to be, so they may have an added rule about that, but generally missionaries are NOT to be on the water!!! I wrote back to Calvin: Um about you going out on the frozen lake: ICE IS FROZEN WATER, AND YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ON OR IN THE WATER UNLESS IT'S A DEDICATED FONT!!!]

  I asked myself several times this week as well, "Why do all my great mission stories concern big Quebecquoi guys who wear no shirt??" Literally, I dont know if its a custiom here to strip before answering the door, but they answer the door with no shirt on, no pants on, only in boxers, you name it! But the best was one day, i think it was tuesday, we were tracting, and we knocked on this door, and my comp looks in the window next to the door. He does that at just about every door. So he says to me "Elder, you gotta seee this, they have a dinosaur!" So I look over, I cant see anything, I'm at the wrong angle.The dogs in the house have been barking this whole time, and then we hear this guy scream a swear word at them, and they stop barking. .  So I knock again, and he's still look ing through the window. Then he says " oh my....." And I see a shadow coming to the door, now I'm expecting a big, angry Quebecquoi man to come to the door. Instead, it's some chick in a tanktop, and those really short underwear shorts that they wear around the house. My comp's freaking out because she then procedes to pick up the little dog, having to bend over to do so. We start our contact, " Bonjour, commont ca'va? Je m'appele Elder Messinger, et lui, il s'appelle Elder This" You know, the regular door contact, well then her boyfriend comes around the corner. he's wearing nothing, except for a towel, which he's holding with his hands. It was all we could do not to bust up laughing, as he screams some profanity at the dog (who hasn't yet stopped barking) and tells us they aren't interested. 

   Miranda, I love the Totoro thing you made!!!!!!! It's soooooo awesome!!!!!

I love you all so much, and I hope you all are doing well!!!!!!!!

LLLOOOOOVVVVFEEEEEE

Calvin

P.s. Oh, momm, how do you make those  scorpion things out of egg cartons? We have tons of egg cartons, and I thought that might be fun. a good thing to leave at peoples hous3s with a note written on it, or something like that. Oh, that's another thing we did, we made bannana bread, and left it at members' houses, mission impossible style. more about that later  [scorpion things? I have no idea what he's talking about, and why would he think leaving an egg carton scorpion thing at someone's house is a good idea?]

How does it feel to be 20?

  Calvin's 20th birthday was on January 25th. His first birthday away from home. We sent him a package with some leaves from Palmyra (the Sacred Grove and the Temple) that we had picked up off the ground when we were there in October. We dried them and laminated them. We also sent him a huge (almost as large and deep as a 9x9 baking pan) Millennium Falcon rubber ice cube mold, a package of Jello (because he may be able to use the ice cube mold for the Jello if he's careful not to put the Jello in hot!), a Yoda Pez dispenser, some more D&D figures and some letters from us. He'll talk about that in another email. I have to ask him specific questions all the time about things we sent, because he forgets to tell me that he's gotten them.
  I also forgot to mention in the last post that you can google "snow removal in Quebec, Canada" and watch videos of the way they deal with snow removal in Canada. It's really quite unique and works very well! I think the US could take a note or two and get some better ideas.
  AND I forgot to share that Heavenly Father loves missionary moms. Each week I find that there is a tender mercy for me from Heavenly Father. Missions are very demanding and hard for the missionaries, but they are also very hard for mothers. The rules for contact with our missionary are very strict: emails only on Monday, and a telephone call (or Skype if it's available) on Christmas and Mother's Day. (Yes, if the missionary is hurt or very ill he or she may call parents) Yes, it does seem a little Draconian for those who haven't grown up in the church, knowing that this is coming. But my son is in Canada to serve the Lord, to help people come to know Christ, to serve the people in his area. Whether it be teaching them about Christ, bringing them food, shoveling their driveways and sidewalks, helping them in their gardens or fields, mucking out animal stalls, helping out in soup kitchens or whatever, he is there to serve. I wouldn't want to be a distraction to the work he has prepared himself his whole life so far to do. I have always believed what Joseph Smith said: “a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation."
  Heavenly Father knows what we need! He knows how difficult it is for us to send our sons and daughters on missions (often to countries halfway around the world). Every week I find a tender mercy whether it be meeting a missionary whose friend is serving in the same mission Calvin is in, or listening to my iPod on shuffle and a French song comes on just as I'm thinking of Calvin, or a mission president's wife who makes sure my son has good boots as he serves in the freezing cold, to other little things like that. Heavenly Father is in the details!
  The week of Calvin's transfer, I got a Facebook message from my beloved friend who lives in New York City. I will paraphrase it: "You're not going to believe this, but I have a friend here in NYC who is Canadian. His mother lives in Calvin's new area. Calvin may have had dinner with her this weekend. My friend's best friend still lives in Canada, and he's not a member of the church, so I have a referral for Calvin. How do I get the referral to him?" Tender mercy! And it also reminds me that within our church, the world is really quite small!
  Now on to Calvin's email:

Momm,

so, what happened this week? Not much, But we had a good week. I'm starting to understand the French here, which is exciting! No more looking at people and nodding and making affermative noises as if I know what's going on!  But I still have lots to learn. It's even weirder when your tracting because you run into accents of varying severity. But we havent had a lot of time to do door to door, because of the new rule, that we cannot go door to door in -20 or lower weather. So, we have been contacting in shopping malls (which is so wierd) and tracking down formers. [inactive members of the church] So, that's what we have been doing lately here. 

 Chicoutamie is BEAUTIFUL!!! Ikeep wanting to stop and take pictures, but we have no time, and it would be awkward to linger after knocking on someone's door to take pictures. 

  Oh, so this week, well, there are a few good stories, we had tracted into an investigator last Sunday, and had set a return appointment this friday (my birthday!) well, we went to the appointment, walked into the appartment building, and suddenly my compannion stops, and starts staring into the mailbox. I look over and see a blue bound book. It's a Book of Mormon, with rumpled torn pages, and some completely torn out. We picked up the book, and it was wet. We have no idea what happened, but there were some underlined words, as if someone had read the book. So we dont know what happened. we tried calling him, no answer, and knocked on his door two different times, again with no response. so, we are planning on going back there to see what happened sometime this week. 

   But, what else happened this week, well, I got Happy Birthday sung to me twice. Once by the entire Zone Council because Sister Cannon called when everyone was there to wish me a happy birthday. the second time, was by my district leaders' Tahitian companion. Then the sister missionaries in Dows Lake sent me a happy Birthday text. They are awesome! And don't worry, we had a dinner appointment. Oh! We also taught this Colombian guy. He only speaks Spanish and French, and It`s like he`s speaking in Spanish when he speaks French because he has a really heavy Spanish accent, and mixes spanish words in with his French. But, the lesson we had with him was super awesome, because he started asking really good questions, and the discussion started going twords baptism, and authority, so next time we`re going to talk more about that. Going to go for a baptismal challenge! Or at least we`ll try! 

  Lets see, what other stories can we tell. Quebecquois dont like to wear shirts. or pants. and they have no shame answering the door without either or both. I almost burst out laughing at the second guy who answered the door without his shirt on. 

  Well, that`s all that I can remember, and my hour is almost up! Love you all sooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!

You are the best!! Yes, I`m taking care of myself! 

I`m warm! 

I`m happy!

I havent got my package yet, but next week I should!

LOVE!
Calvin Messinger

  Have I mentioned that Calvin always signs his written letters with his first and last name? I keep telling him that he only needs to write "Calvin" but he always signs both names on his written letters.

Maybe I should forget about blogging every week

The ice in the river that Calvin mentions - at least I think it's on the river - and sorry it's sideways.

Le Gros Lapin de Chicoutimi - and Calvin's apartment, on the third floor, and his companion already fell on the stairs , or perhaps through the stairs?

  Yet again I find myself weeks behind in updates. No excuses, just weeks behind.
  Calvin had written that he needed to get boots. I missed him being online - sometimes I can time it so that I'm online the same time he is, and I can shoot a quick message to him, but that particular week I missed him entirely. I worried about him getting boots, so I emailed the mission president's wife about it (she's really good at making sure the missionaries have what they need). She called me back, but I was at a Relief Society meeting. Between emails to her, messages taken by my daughters, and fervent prayer (because it's REALLY cold in Chicoutimi!) Calvin got boots. I think they were in the "missionary free store." I have mentioned before that some missionaries leave behind things (like coats and boots and probably blankets) when they go home. These items are stored in the mission home so other missionaries can use them as needed.

Hey momm!!!

Here I am in the GREAT WHITE NORTH!!!!!!!!! I feel like we are on the edge of the world, even though there is still a long way to go to get there. But, here I am! Well, what has happened, lets see, at the beginning of the week, I said good bye to Chapel Hill. I was sad, there are a lot of amazing people there, and the work is going to go so well there, but I'm sure we are going to have a lot of success here as well! So, that was Mon, and Tues, was going around and talking to people, doing a last bit of work, and then on wednesday, I was off! Off to the bus station to go to the station in Montreal, to do transfers, which is basically an hour of missionaries talking to each other. I saw [the other missionary from our Stake] there, as well as a surprising number of other missionaries I know. I didnt know that I knew that many. Then, on another bus to go to Quebec City. We got there, and all the other missionaries were late. So, after they arrived (the sister missionaries arrived first, then the Elders, and the Zone leaders, and  my companion met us at the institute building). So, what happened then. Oh, so then we ate poutine at Intuitions (which was awesome!) and then we split the zone leaders for the night. [A definition of splits: Elders (and Sisters) are in companionships of two, so when Calvin mentions his companion, he's talking about the other missionary he works with. A "split" occurs when the elder or sister work with someone other than their own companion. Or the companionship is "split" up. Splits always occur with someone of the same gender.]  We taught some Quebecquoi people, and i could understand most of what they said, which was a false impression, and I'll tell you why later. So that night I found out my comp has read, and loves, the Wheel of Time, and Belgariad series. I was so happy.

   So, a little about my comp. He was born on the Isle de Reunion, and speaks french. Yes, his family is Chinese, and malagasy, and just about everything else in the book. But, his Chinese grandfather didn't teach his father Cantonese, so he cannot speak Chinese. He likes the Men in Black movies, and loves Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and stuff like that. umm...... he also can cook good french toast. So, thats a little about him.

  So, the next day, we drive two hours up to Chicoutmie!! [Hmm, by my calculations it took Calvin two busses, a two-hour drive, and two days to get from Ottawa to Chicoutimi! That's a LONG transfer time! The elders here in our mission take a day to do transfers. I think the longest they drive is perhaps 8 hours total?] So, that was fun. We went through tons of hills, that looked like mini mountains. It felt like i was in Idaho again. oh, it was something like -28 to -25 ish up there. It warmed up when we got to Chicoutamie: -23ish. Oh, i didnt tell you, we have a truck. We get to drive a truck up here. So, we get here, and have correlation [a meeting to discuss what the goals for missionary work are for that week, and how teaching investigators is progressing] with our Ward Mission Leader I didn't know much about the area, so there was not much I could do. After that, we went knocking. and knocking. and knocking. My companion says thats how most of our investigators are found. by knocking. We hope to change that soon, because this transfer we are going to focus on missionary work. so, then, we went and taught  less active kid, which ended up with us listeneing to this Quio man telling us for an hour his life story, and how english is inferior to French, and how Quebec should be a seperate country, and blah blah blah blah was about all I heard. The biggest problem with that lesson was that I could not understand ANYTHING that man was saying to us. He had the WORST Quebecquoi accent I had heard up until that point. "Moui-le, bain le le le le le le" I was like " WHAT IS HE SAYING!?!?!?!?!?! WHAT IS THAT?" Elder Thia told me not to worry, because most Elders dont understand at the beginning and that I will get it, which I hope is true. Then, we went and taught someone, who had an even WORSE Quoi accent, and no teeth.  I didnt understand a word he said.

   The nevxt day we went tracting, and I felt more like I was in a deep, dark hole that I will never climb out of, because I found out that I did NOT understand Quebecquoi. It's not French. I don't know what is is, besides and abomination before the Lord. ok, that was a little over the top, but it's not French. The quebecquoi are interesting people too. They talk very fast, very loud, and over top of anyone else. They also talk on forever, and almost never let you speak. So, thus far, it feels like I'm serving a real mission. It feels like I'm in an entirely new mission up here. The weather is so different. thus far, I think we've been up above -10 once (?) and even then I''m not sure. But I'm having the time of my life. It's so fun. OH, tell [a member of our branch] thanks for the hat. I didnt use it at all until I came up here, and now it is a most treasured possetion! Oh, yeah, I got boots, too. Sister Cannon found some in the mission Home, so you dont need to worry about that any more, and they are the perfect boots, too. Very warm! So, I am warm. and relatively happy, despite the fact that i cant understand a word of what people say. They all say that my French is good, to which i reply in my head " I hope so, because that means at least one of us understands whats going on here!" Oh, Canada uses Tractors for clearing out snow, a lot more than we use snowplows. Oh, and they have the BIGGEST snowblowers I have ever seen in my life with those tractors. So, tracting in -20 weather, talking to people I cant understand, that's basically my life right now. [his temperatures are in Celsius, so it's about -9F]

  But, its beautiful up here! one day, we passed over a river, that had HUGE ice chunks floating in it, and this awesome fog rising off of it int the day time. I wish I had a IPAd with a paint program on it so I could paint all this scenery. So, anyways, that's life right now in the Great White North!  

   Yes, I did get the email too late, I chucked all but the essential letters. I have warm boots, sister Cannon herself called me after getting your email. She takes super good care of us.

   LOVE YOU!!!!!
     Watch out for the Gros Lapin de Chicoutamie! [see the picture above]

      and blizzards, and all sorts of machinerie for moving snow!!!!!!!

    love

Calvin