Je Me Souviens

So for our birthday, christmas, anniversary and miscellaneous presents Brigham gifted us with a airplane trip to Montreal- the land of the Mission - Quebec Canada. Rindy and I haven't taken a trip with just the two of us since forever. Thanks to Brigham, and Mackey juggling some things here alone, and Blair & Julie coming down to help Mackey with others - we were excited to go. Our goal wasn't per-se to do any particular thing but to spend time together and see a few things I had never seen before, and for Rindy all of Quebec was a first.

traveling partner

We started with Sharon Vermont and visiting Joseph Smith's birth place. Its in the middle of nowhere; but a lovely nowhere. its a peaceful, reverential place. One of the highlights was a new church video about the family that is part of their presentation. As the world debates the nature and definition of families - the Lord is constant and this video teaches the simple doctrine.

it was a beautiful day for a road trip

Thanks to the Internet we drove through Montpelier and search for the top restaurants. As rindy drove I read aloud the reviews and we voted. SALT.  It is a tiny 16-seater with locally sourced ingredients and a menu that changes regularly. Dad would have loved the short ribs and we loved everything we ate. A delightful and tasty choice. Equally in the middle of nowhere. But if you find yourself there - we recommend it and give it a 5 star rating.

Back to Montreal. In candor we drove many a mile, but our goal was to spend time together talking and once you get your 'Road Warrior" mindset. Its as easy to talk in a car as any where.

Montreal - did it look the same? Its funny how much I remembered and how much I forgot. The french slide back easily, my conjugation reeked, but the core was there. Remembering streets and roads, and areas just didn't happen for me. I remembered the teaching highlights of the mission.

We stayed in a downtown Marriott on the 34th floor and had a panoramic view of the City. It provided a quick orientation of where what was. Saturday morning we arose early and went walking the old city of Montreal. There is no better fashion, at least in our view, to quickly get a feel for a city than to walk it. WE came across the shooting of a movie set in the 19th century and they had quite a few buggies going back and forth; went to the cathedral and out to the harbor and though the town.

Afterward we drove over to the Temple and enjoyed  a session together;  Clearly, there was no temple there back in 73.It is the same make and model as the St Paul, only done right, with added space for coats, waiting, eating - go figure - glad to see them apply the acquired wisdom. I visited with a few people that I knew and enjoyed reconnecting.

We followed the temple with a drive up to Mont Tremblant. (check the link out their photos are better than mine)I never knew Quebec and such hilly (small mountainous) terrain. It was beautiful. The city itself was about 2 - 2 1/2 hours north of Montreal. We stayed in a small  village reminiscent to a vail or a park city but quainter and more european.

Might as well fess up here and now. We thoroughly enjoyed Quebec and would go back. It has multiple enjoyable venues and  has the benefit of being foreign all the while being very close. The shops were as they should be a once again we were more than pleased with the food. We were guided right and simply enjoyed .

the next leg of the journey was to another place I had never been - Quebec City. Lots of one-way roads made navigation a bit tricky but we figured it out. We stayed in the heart of the town and walked the evening in a light mist while finding an outdoor skating rink which in turn led to us discovering another great restaurant _ we did remarkably well in the food department this trip. The morning was spent wondering the old city, over looking the St Laurence, cathedrals and forts. It was great.

The trip reminded us once again that we are first and foremost friends who enjoy each other's company, we are complementary travel companions, and still in love. 

Joseph Smith

The impact of Joseph Smith as we commemorate his birthday today

7. I was at this time in my fifteenth year. My father’s family was proselyted to the Presbyterian faith, and four of them joined that church, namely, my mother, Lucy; my brothers Hyrum and Samuel Harrison; and my sister Sophronia.

8 During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all these parties, though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would permit. In process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them; but so great were the confusion and ^astrife among the different denominations, that it was impossible for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was ^bright^• and who was wrong.

9 My mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were so great and incessant. The Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists and Methodists, and used all the powers of both reason and sophistry to prove their errors, or, at least, to make the people think they were in error. On the other hand, the Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all others.

10  In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be ^aright, which is it, and how shall I know it?

11  While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of ^aJames^•, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack ^bwisdom^•, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

12 Never did any passage of ^ascripture^• come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed ^bwisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects ^cunderstood^• the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.

13  At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in ^adarkness^• and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would ^bgive liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.

14 So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the ^awoods^• to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a ^bbeautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to ^cpray ^dvocally^•.

15 After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was ^aseized^• upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick ^bdarkness^• gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

16 But, exerting all my powers to ^acall^• upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into ^bdespair^• and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of ^clight^• exactly over my head, above the brightness of the ^dsun^•, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself ^adelivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I ^bsaw two ^cPersonages^•, whose brightness and ^dglory defy all description, ^estanding^• above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My ^fBeloved^{• g}Son. Hear Him!