People we love

 

Isn't it strange how when you look at the faces in someone else's pictures all you see are strangers? And you can think dispassionately "that guy looks weird" or "that lady looks like my 3rd grade teacher" and that's the end of it? While, meanwhile, I look at these faces and feel a great swelling up of love and memory. Oh we love these people. It's not like we spent every hour with them even when we were in Québec. We all lived our own busy lives. But the time we did spend together was somehow magnified or deepened enough that we grew to love them so quickly. I keep wondering if we will find a way to go back and visit. But even if we do…things will have already changed. It feels so sad.

But this wasn't a sad day. It was a happy one. We made a million cinnamon rolls and invited all our Lévis Branch friends to come over and eat and talk with us on a Sunday evening. It was a mini version of the Butterscotch Roll Party we do on Christmas Eve in Utah. It was a lovely snowy night and our house felt so happy and full with so many friends in it!

Daisy, Junie, Malachi, Laura, Valerie

Jeremie, Richard, Ziggy

Goldie's dear friend Louise. And her little sisters, the beautifully-named Lumiére and Seriah.

Gus and his beloved Charlotte

Laura and Valerie

Greice and Jeffrei Moreira

Frère and Sœur Gélinas

Francine (Louise's darling mother)

Sophie, Nívea, Katia

Sam, Patrick Betchi, President Freire, Frère Portal

Laura's little sister Isabelle

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I guess I'll put the pictures from our Branch Souper Noël here too, while we're showing people we love!

Frère Babalola always had the best outfits on Sundays. I was so taken with this short-sleeved suitcoat!

Goldie and Louise

Isabella Moreira. She is the cutest! We loved her and her sister Helena so much. They sat in front of us in church and would look back and play with us. And they came to choir and played with us there too!

There's Helena with Gus and Clementine

Junie, a bunch of Primary kids and our dear Sœurs Robinson and Veenker

Someone broke out the karaoke at the end of the party…the young women favored us with a few very giggly numbers

Oh my goodness, Frère Babalola again. I love his suit so much. He obviously knows he looks good in it.

Francine's amazing rose headdress

I played with this little girl in Relief Society whenever I could (she would crawl around and rummage around in my bag) but I never learned her name! How sad! She was just learning how to walk and in this pictures she was so pleased with herself about it!

Francine, who is from Congo, told me she was going to bring "foufou" to the Souper Noël and I was so curious about it! This is what it turned out to be. Kind of a paste made out of boiled and mashed plantains or cassava. On the buffet table, it was wrapped up in plastic wrap like a bunch of mini pie crusts. To eat it you just pull off a bit of the dough with your hand, and then Francine brought a sort of picked cabbage to dip it in. It was SO different! And good! The only thing I have eaten that's anything like it is the mofongo we tried in Puerto Rico.

Clementine's adored and adorable nursery leader Marie-Kristine—we love her SO much! She has the cutest kids, including twins Théo and Jade (cutest names!) We have plans for Goldie to marry baby Théo. We find the age difference no obstacle. It makes me so sad to see this picture and think that Clementine will forget how much she loved Marie-Kristine! She does still remember her right now…she says sometimes, "I want to go to Ta-bec. I want to go to my nursery." I wish she would never forget!

Greice

Last dinner with our Sister missionaries

Last dinner with our Elders (already missing Malachi)

Oh, it is too sad! But I should concentrate on how lucky we were to make these friends at all! To think we might have never known them! I am so grateful that we did get to know them.