New Year for Jaggis in Toronto

We are very busy in the office now. We spend some evenings and weekends with the Weston Ward members and missionaries, but seldom go out teaching. We often leave the office quite late (8:00 the other night!) but we are thankful we have the health and gifts needed to do this work. We love seeing so much of so many of the missionaries. The other office couple, the Barnes, are wonderful and sweet and we love them to death! What a blessing they have been to us.

A couple weeks ago a little girl in the ward asked if Elder Jaggi could baptize her, so I will try to post the picture. It is so sweet. Elder Jaggi was very pleasantly surprized at the request. Also we had a delightful Cottage Meeting at the Bradshaws where Elder Prohaska taught the lesson and led us in a fun game of intrigue. Cottage Meetings give the recent converts and investigators a chance to be in the home of a member and get a feel for how Latter-day Saints live.

Saturday is our P-day, so we get the wash done and about every other Saturday we go do something with the Barnes. We love to go see the museums, city sites, parks and any other sites we hear about. It has been cold, but no snow. Ontario is going to be hurting this summer if we don't get some water.

Elder Jaggi and I celebrated our 40th anniversary this week (Feb. 3). What a special day. I look forward to it like Christmas. I gave him a watch that is too big for his wrist, and he arranged a surprize of a dozen yellow long-stemmed roses to be on my desk when I went into the office. He never forgets, and every single solitary year I am surprized!! I can't believe he somehow figures out a way to do that every year?!!? We had a fantastic dinner at a restaurant, The Verona, on a strip down in the theatre district. How I love that man.

The picture of a man and woman in front of the temple doors is Ina Powell and her friend. I escorted her through the temple. She is one of the students from our Temple Preparation class.

The last picture I posted is of Sister Jaggi teaching the Seniors how to line dance to the Tabernacle Choir! We had a ball.

This is Phillip Pryce's baptism with family and some young men. He is a delightful, bright young man. He was taught missionary lessons at his Grandma's (Ina, standing next to him), who was baptized last November. Two weeks later John Young was baptized. We are so happy for him, and his member wife, Cassandra. I haven't downloaded his picture yet, but may add it later. This other picture is of the 1,000 Islands Tour we took with the seniors on the St. Lawrence River. Amazing. People own islands just big enough for a house and a little yard on a river that is bigger than the Potomac and freezes over in winter! I'll try to download a movie of a few of the islands.

We have been so very busy doing different things every day. We never could have dreamed our mission would take us down this road. We are learning things always. We have Zone Conferences every 6 weeks, District meetings weekly, President's Firesides monthly, Role Plays weekly, apartment inspections for 17 apartments every 6 weeks, Cottage Meeting monthly, Family Home Evening weekly, and at all of them we feel the fire of the Spirit as the missionaries and sometimes we share testimony and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. We get instruction on how to teach, where to teach and who to teach. We try to take time to find lost inactive members, and occasionally we are successful and invite them to Come unto Christ. What a joy when they do. And when they don't, we still feel productive in taking the Spirit into their homes. We have learned to try to make everyone we meet a little better for having seen us. The other day I made a crusty ol' Yogoslavian smile, and when he did it made our day! We wish we knew the languages of all these people.

Sister Jaggi with Jerniver at baptism. Sister Jaggi and Elder Jaggi at temple with Sis. Hermiz.

It is now the end of February and we have finally given thought to our blog. It was set up for the purpose of following our mission. Well, here is a little more scoop! We had a baptism of a great guy, Yaw, in January and a baptism of a sweet girl, Jerniver, just last week. This is what it is all about! We are so happy to see the glow in each of them as they embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Savior doesn't necessarily take our trials away; he just helps us carry them, and we grow stronger in the process. I will try to post pictures of those two in white, and also a couple pictures of things Elder Jaggi and Sister Jaggi have been doing.