My husband and I just returned from serving a Church mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Toronto, Canada. We were there for a whole year. It was a great experience!
The name Toronto means "Meeting Place." It certainly is. There are people there from every nation in the world. We got to know people from many cultures--Scottish, Mexican, Jamacian, Chinese, Korean, Iranian, Madagascar, Russia, Ghana, The Philippines, and of course Canadian. These people came seeking a better life than they had in their homelands. We formed some "eternal friendships."
We braved 16 lanes of freeway traffic and the fearsome blinking left turn signal lights. We survived the longest and coldest winter in decades and the hotest, smoggiest and most humid summer in decades. We found beauty in the large buildings and the many parks and gardens.
Our major duties were to work in the mission office. My husband was the finance secretary and dealt with landlords of about 70 apartments, keeping the missionaries happy with their funding and bus passes, and he upgraded furnishings for their apartments. He had a new computer operating system that he had to Beta test.
I was in charge of ordering plane tickets, preparing orientation books for new missionaries, doing paper work for those who were returning home, forwarding the mail and answering all kind of questions from both missionaries and the public. I also kept track of two large computer data bases and made several merge documents that were important to our mission.
In our "spare time" during evenings we had the opportunity to teach new member lessons to several persons. We attended baptisms in our ward as well. We did some extra things like plan a ward picnic. My husband had a few opportunities to work at the church farm and drive for the Bishop's storehouse. We attended an authentic Chinese New Year Celebration.
I had several health problems to deal with during this year. The worse one was sciatica. I had problems getting my medications from the states on time. Why would we leave our comfortable life and friends, family and activities to do this? Because we have a firm conviction that what we are doing is the right thing to do.
We visited several scenic areas while there including Niagra Falls and the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River. We also enjoyed Cullen Gardens, Edwards Gardens, Black Creek Village, Unionville, a butterfly conservatory and the Pickering Flea Markets.
If you would like to know more about our mission please send me an email.
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