We enjoyed spending a week in Ottawa, Canada’s Capital attending the annual Canada Public Affairs Council conference, and an interfaith “Our Whole Society” conference.  Both of which we were heavily involved in logistical planning (feeling relieved it all went smoothly)!

It was fun meeting the Public Affairs Directors throughout Canada!  Lucky gave a great presentation on managing national Mormon Newsroom articles for Canada.

Canada Public Affairs Coordinating Council Members

Lucky presenting

At Parliament Hill

With Canada’s Public Affairs National Director, Sandra Pallin

At the famous Women’s Monument

I loved this stained glassed art work on the Relief Society room door in the LDS Prince of Wales Chapel we attended.

We enjoyed working with many other faith leaders during the “Our Whole Society” Conference.  The Highlight of the conference was the plenary session on Parliament Hill with members of parliament participating as panelists. They discussed how their faith informs their political life as they work to promote the common good.

Lucky wrote this Mormon Newsroom Article about the Conference.

Last week Lucky and I attended a Faith in Canada 150 luncheon–one of the many events celebrating Canada’s sesquicentennial. We enjoyed meeting with many other faith leaders to help promote an alliance between different faith denominations.  “Finding common ground for the common good.”  I loved hearing this statement: “By respecting our differences and working toward shared goals, we are building a stronger community that reflects true diversity, honors religious freedom, and promotes a more flourishing future.”

Today is GOOD FRIDAY.  We think it’s great that Canada celebrates Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Easter Monday  (Friday & Monday are statutory holidays across Canada)!

This week we experienced the TTC: Toronto Transit Commission.  We decided after three months of living here, it was time to leave the safety of our car, and tryout the transit system.  It was a fun day experiencing the “Heart of the city”!

Spring

Winter Ice Skating

Last week we visited a Hindu Temple. The peace and beauty of the temple was incredible! The hand-carved wood and marble is breath-taking!!  Most of the carving work was done in India and pieced together after being shipped here.  During our visit we experienced their Rajbhog Arti (ritual prayer).  The music and chanting echoed beautifully through the room (see marbled pillar room pics).  After the chanting they passed a candle around and took turns extending their hands over the flame and drawing the warmth of the flame to their faces, each doing it 3 or 4 times before passing the candle to the next person.  It was awesome!

This week we visited a Muslim Ismaili Centre to participate at an International Women’s Day event.  The people we met were overwhelmingly kind and hospitable!  We enjoyed touring their Jamatkhana (prayer hall) and seeing the hand-carved ceramic wall done by a father and son who traveled from Tajikistan to do the carving (taking nearly 6 months)!  We met Shelina & Shellina (same name coincidence) who said they serve every week at the centre assisting families needing help with funeral preparations.  They estimated there were 40,000 Muslims within their service area.  According to Goggle, the Muslim religion is the second largest in Canada (7%).  Christianity is the largest, although Mormons aren’t considered Christians by most Christian religions in the area (because of the differing trinity doctrine).  The Mormon population in Canada is less than 1/2 percent (0.37).

Tomorrow we will participate at the baptism of a teenage boy who committed to baptism last Sunday!  The sister missionaries and I will sing a special musical number at the baptism.

This week we toured the Casa Loma Castle (built in 1911).  Back when President Monson was the mission president the newly arrived missionaries would be met by missionaries from the mission office who drove them to the mission home (a block from this castle).  The new missionaries would be in awe at the structure.  Often, to their surprise, the driver would turn into the property of the castle and say, “Here we are, at the mission home!”  The joke would soon be discovered and they would continue on to the mission home residence.

Great Hall Ceiling

Fireplace in the Great Hall

Back porch

Sister Bingham & Vardy in the Conservatory

We ran into Sister Bingham and Sister Vardy (who offered to take pics of us)!

Castle Tower View

Windsor Room

Sir Henry’s Suite

Sir Henry’s Suite

Lady Mary’s Suite

Staircase to the Tower

Sir Henry’s Chair

Breakfast Nook

Breakfast Nook Hutch

The Library (Banquet events)

We love our involvement with the “Canadian Interfaith Conversation” group.  Last week we attended a discussion with Millennial attendees representing different faiths.  They were invited to share their views on the impact of religion in their own lives and how they can be advocates for religion in Canada’s diverse culture. They were all “bright”, “happy”, “hopeful”, and “forward thinking”!  Two LDS young single adults were invited to represent our church.  Lucky is working on writing a news article about the evening that will hopefully be published on the Canadian Mormon Newsroom within the next couple of weeks!

Happy Family Day (Feb 20, 2017)!  I love that Canada has a holiday to celebrate the importance of families!  They really take their holidays seriously.  No stores (not even Walmart) have been open)!

February is a great month for celebrating in the Morse family. Lucky and I celebrated our 35th anniversary (Feb 5), and we have four family birthday celebrations (Brigg, Jared, Layne, and Colin).  We’re happy that our kids and grand-kids are keeping the tradition of celebrating together while we’re on our mission!

Snow in Toronto!

Cute Valentines Card!

Sister missionaries eating strawberry hearts with ice cream.

We enjoyed having the sister missionaries over for dinner and a missionary lesson about “LOVE” on Valentines day.

Last week we finally got some snow here in Toronto!  But the last couple of days the weather has been sunny and warm.  Warm enough today for a nice bike ride through Centennial park, and to the beautiful nearby botanical gardens!

We’ve been anxiously engaged in many good things here in Toronto!  We’ve also been learning a few “Canadian quirks” for example, a shopping cart is called a “buggy”, and there is no such thing as a “Carton” of milk.. it  comes in “Plastic bags”, and if you don’t bring  your own bags to carry your purchases home, you pay 5 cents for each bag you use. Also, if you want to go shopping at Walmart, you’ll first have to pass through a security gate (similar to the airport), and if you want to use a shopping cart, you’ll pay a dollar. The “up” side of grocery shopping is that there is no tax on food (but a high 13% tax on non-food items).  We’re finally getting used to the metric system (liters vs Gallons, kilograms vs pounds, kilometers vs miles, Celsius vs  Fahrenheit).

This month we’ve been busy with several interfaith projects. We love working with, and getting to know people of other faiths!   This year, because of Canada’s sesquicentennial celebration, we’ll be extra busy planning for, and attending events.  So far, we’ve attended the Black History Month kick-off brunch fundraiser (a 1st class event with amazing food, great entertainment, and awesome people).  We’ve also interviewed, took pictures, and wrote a news article for the Canadian Mormon Newsroom about an interfaith organ recital performed by a young LDS missionary at a historic baptist church (posted here).  I’ve been busy with several graphic design event flyer/poster projects, and Lucky has been busy coordinating the collection of Canadian LDS faith stories to submit to the “Faith in Canada 150” initiative.

Our Public Affairs Mission Purpose:

• Raise the profile of the Church.
• Clarify what we stand for.
• Be known as good people who do good things.
• Stand up for the family.

We’ve also enjoyed meeting the young Elder and Sister missionaries in the Etobicoke area.  Tonight we went with the sister missionaries to visit a Nicaraguan family (mother & daughter) who live in our ward boundaries, but who have been inactive since moving to Toronto (25 years ago).  They committed to coming to sacrament meeting this coming Sunday!   Although Public Affairs missionaries are NOT supposed to do any proselyting, this is a special situation where Lucky and I have the ward calling to home teach/visit teach them, so we also get to go to their lesson appointments!

Our Ward Members (Etobicoke Toronto)

We love our new ward members!  We were thrilled to discover its members come from over 50 different countries!  Diversity is a great strength!  Our bishop, Tom Pallin, said Toronto means “a gathering of tribes, or meeting place.” That’s literally true with our ward!   Members come from all continents bringing  new ideas, tradition, and deep faith.

President Monson’s visit in 2011

The building we meet in was built in the  early 1960’s when  Toronto’s first stake was formed at the time President Thomas Monson was the mission president.  He came back to visit in 2011.

Last Saturday we enjoyed getting to know some of our ward members better at a Chinese New Year Party. We also enjoyed attending  a temple session at the Toronto temple. And we FINALLY found a place to play racquetball that doesn’t require an expensive monthly membership fee! YEA!

We have also been very busy with our Public Affairs work attending luncheons, writing newsroom articles, visiting people of other faiths, designing event flyers, etc.  (details coming soon)!