Senior Couples Retreat

     Several months ago President Pratt said he'd like to get all the senior couples together for a few days for a conference/retreat/whatever because some of the couples have never met except on Skype and asked us to come up with some ideas for it. Elder Holbrook worked hard on it (we would have loved something like that early in our first mission), and after a couple of proposed venues and dates, it all came together this past weekend. Three new couples have arrived this month, so it was a perfect time for everyone to meet.

     All the couples came to the Halifax area--ten couples plus the Pratts. Three couples stayed at the Mission Home with the Pratts and three others each stayed with the three local couples who have larger apartments. We traveled around in President Pratt's car, a minivan, and the mission transfer van.

     Sister Pratt met each couple with a welcome basket full of snacks for the weekend and a missionary plaque. Friday night we had a nice dinner at a place called the MicMac (Bar and) Grill. Delicious food and fun to start getting to know everyone. The next morning Sister Pratt hosted us for breakfast with a delicious spread before we headed to Peggy's Cove. It was kind of a drizzly day and the water was calmer than we've seen it before.

L-R Sister Brewster (Bountiful), Sister Excell (Cedar City), Sister Edwards (Eagar, AZ),
Sister Pratt, Sister Doman (Oregon), Sister Hull (Preston, ID), Sister Holbrook

With Sister and President Pratt

We saw things we haven't seen on any of the other times we've been there, but we're pretty sure this anchor has been around for a while.

Almost every time we've been, there has been at least one musician playing around the lighthouse. The sounds carry a long distance. They play for free, but have their music case open for donations. This time it was a bagpiper, all decked out. Fun!

And this carving in a 100-foot granite outcropping. It was done as a lasting monument to Nova Scotia fisherman and their families as well as the legendary Peggy, the woman the area was named after

From there we headed to Mahone Bay. We'd heard something about a scarecrow festival but didn't know what that meant. We found out before we ever entered the city. They had a wide variety of "scarecrows" scattered all throughout the town. Here are some of our favorite of the ones we got pictures of, but some we saw as we were driving and weren't fast enough with the camera.

After another rainy stop in Lunenburg (remember the Pinterest Fail post a few months back?), we headed back to Halifax and the Titanic Cemetery. The smaller headstones are on the graves of people identified only by a number (the order they were recovered). This section of the cemetery is laid out like the bow of a ship. There's also a monument to those who died in the Halifax Explosion. The blast was so great very few bodies were recovered, so the mass grave is for the bits of bone that were recovered.

     Saturday morning we explored a little in downtown Halifax and then went to the temple. We are so blessed to have a temple so close this time.

     The weekend was a fun way to connect and reconnect. These are great people we've had the opportunity to rub shoulders with this past year. They've helped they light of the Saviour shine in the Maritimes and have blessed many people here, including us.


"We are not here in this life just to waste our time, grow old, and die.  God wants us to grow and achieve our potential."
-Carlos A Goday


     We love serving with so many who are helping us achieve our potential.