Back from Toronto

Okay...so I'm back from Toronto! I had a fabulous time! My friend Mary Bagley and I went to visit with our very dear friend Peggy, who is serving with her husband, who is the mission president in the Canada Toronto West Mission, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We kind of got an idea of what it takes to keep the mission going...LOTS OF HARD WORK AND WORRY! They have 180 missionaries in their area that they are responsible for, most of them 19- to 21-year-old young men. For those of you not familiar with the Church's missionary program, the Middleton's are there in Canada for 3 years. They and the missionaries themselves are not paid for their service and so it is at a great personal sacrifice that they are there. The Church has 300+ missions all over the world and we got to peek into the days of the mission life of these wonderful people. The first couple of days were spent helping to feed the missionaries. We helped with a sister missionary day on Monday, feeding them breakfast and lunch, making journals with them and cookbooks. They entertained us with a fun talent show and ending with a spiritual feast.


Tuesday we made lunch for 20 Elders during their zone leader council. We made roast beef, garlic mashed potatoes, salads and lots of vegetables. They ate everything and more! Afterwards they sang "Called to Serve" for us...and of course we wouldn't be past missionary moms without a few tears. What a great privilege it was for us to experience a few days at the mission home in the Canada Toronto West Mission!


Tuesday night Peggy took us to the Broadway Musical "The Sound of Music" in downtown Toronto. It was fabulous!


Wednesday we drove to Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. We stopped at the little resort town of Niagara-on-the-Lake which was a fabulous place to do some shopping and have lunch. I found a few places with "Queen" signs and so I had to have my picture taken. It rained most of the day and by the time we got to Niagara Falls it was dark but spectacular none-the-less!




Okay...so the pictures in the dark weren't all that good...but I never professed to be a great photographer. I took them with and without a flash...and it didn't seem to help. :)




Here's a picture of my traveling companion, Mary Bagley. She is wearing the matching aprons we made for ourselves. I must say we all looked very cute in our coordinating aprons!


And a picture of President and Sister Middleton.


The trip was a wonderful opportunity to spend time with my friends and experience the mission field!

Thursday was an adventurous day traveling home. Our flight from Toronto to Cincinnati was delayed and so we would have missed our connecting flight to Salt Lake City. After a long wait in Toronto, they sent us to Atlanta..and at that point we were no closer to home than when we began. We then could wait a few more hours and then fly on to Salt Lake City. Yeah and I had the privilege to sit near 3 toilets in the back of a plane with about 250 passengers...yeah...it was a great flight...