May 4, 2015

Bonnie:  What a wonderful day this has been, although it was not without some problems.  We are at the mission president's home in Toronto.  We had a delicious dinner with three new sister missionaries, the two assistants to the president and President and Sister Clayton. They are warm and loving and have shared with us some wonderful gospel principles, such as always remembering our purpose. We are to always be ready to share our testimonies and the Holy Spirit will let us know what to say as we speak.  At dinner we went around the table and shared why we decided to serve a mission. After dinner we shared our testimonies.  The spirit was very strong.  I;m so glad to be here.  It will be a wonderful experience.  Now, I'm looking forward to getting some sleep!

Bob: Well Chris, you were absolutely correct about one thing, there is no easy way to get to Buffalo from Shippensburg!! We saw a lot of beautiful Pennsylvania and New York landscape on our way here and actually arrived earlier than our GPS said we would. However, from Buffalo to Toronto took over 4 hours which includes time at the border explaining why we were wanting to stay in Canada for 18 months.
At the border they asked why we were going to Canada, how we would pay for our mission, what we would be doing on our mission, exactly where we would be living (which we didn't know, but they called for us), a letter calling us to serve a mission, and a letter from someone in Canada about our mission. With all this and the processing it took at least an hour. They were polite and told us we could have a seat while we were waiting. But there is only 1 chair in the lobby.
We had to suspend our phone service in Buffalo. AT&T agreed we could end the contracts on my phone and the tablet for a total of $251. Then we could go to AT&T in Canada and they would put a symcard in our devices that would allow us to continue using them. Our plan charges would remain as they are now and we could text, have data, call, etc. I can't see why they need the $251 surrender charge if we are going to continue to pay the same monthly charge we do now! I plan on discussing this more with them ASAP. Anyway, for now, we DO NOT have any phone or texting capabilities.
Dinner was wonderful and the testimony meeting was spiritually uplifting.
Tried to get a picture of the Welcome to Ontario sign. Also, we have a picture of President & Sister Clayton welcoming us to the Mission.