In December 2020, with the worldwide COVID pandemic raging around us, our traditional Christmas celebrations with family and loved ones became just a distant memory. During that time, my husband, Richard, and I were serving as mission leaders in the Canada Montreal Mission. Missionary service during COVID certainly changed for every single missionary worldwide. All proselyting, contacting, and teaching were done using their smartphones. It was unbelievable!
We were blessed with an incredible army of missionaries who were committed to the Saviour and spreading His gospel, using whatever means they could. Our calling as leaders was to love, encourage, and validate every effort they made. I recall one particular Mission Leadership Council we held on Thursday, October 15th, 2020, where we brainstormed using adjectives to describe a COVID missionary. On the wall-sized whiteboard, I wrote “COVID” vertically, and next to each letter, we wrote several adjectives describing a COVID missionary.
Here Are a Few of Them:
C: Christ-like, charitable, consecrated, covenant keeper
O: Obedient, optimistic, organized
V: Valiant, virtuous, vigilant
I: Inspired, imaginative, innovative
D: Dependable, diligent, devoted disciple
During our 15 months of COVID restrictions, we observed that the missionaries the Lord sent to us had all these qualities and more. This enabled them to continue finding, teaching, and baptizing even during these very challenging times.
COVID Restrictions Were No Match for the Light of Christ
We were still concerned that these amazing missionaries would have a hard time with the upcoming ‘COVID’ Christmas, which limited or prohibited personal interactions with family, church members, or even us.
We bedecked our beautiful Mission Home at 85 Henley Avenue, Ville de Mont Royal, Montreal, with our favourite Christmas décor. We cooked traditional Quebecois tortiere —a baked meat pie seasoned with cinnamon, allspice, and cloves, supplemented with finely chopped steamed carrots and potatoes. We even made a turkey dinner for two!
Laws forbade us from having a single person in our home. That meant absolutely no gatherings of any kind were allowed for our dear missionaries or our friends. Zoom and telephone calls to family were our lifeline to loved ones. Nightly Zoom calls with our missionaries kept the work progressing, and the morale of everyone was positive. Fortunately, Christmas packages for almost all our missionaries arrived on time. We loved distributing them to the mission districts and zones in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and parts of Ontario, as well as everywhere in Quebec.
A COVID Christmas Begins…
At a mission-wide Christmas Eve Zoom devotional, missionaries shared memorable Christmas experiences. One of our beautiful, sweet sisters recalled a very meagre Christmas where her recently divorced Mom was barely able to provide for her family, and they did not expect to celebrate much that year. One night, the doorbell rang, and, through her tears, she recounted finding a big pot on the front step…filled with money! Hearing her story made a memorable Christmas for her, and for us.
I wrote in my journal, “Christmas Day, at 10 am, we started with a Mission-wide Zoom testimony meeting, thinking we’d go for an hour or so. Two and a half hours later, we had to end the meeting. What an amazing Christmas gift to hear the heartfelt testimonies of so many of our dear mission family.”
Another excerpt from my journal said, “We get pretty melancholy knowing this is our third Christmas as missionaries. How this blessed adventure has flown by…so much still to do…so many lives to help strengthen.”
Giving Service at Christmas Brings Christ to All
Remarkably, during this time, service to local charities was not totally forbidden. On Saturday, December 26, 2020, I recorded the following: “Last night (Christmas night), we had a sweet, humbling experience as we delivered fresh, warm buns to ‘Chez Doris’- a women’s shelter where teams of our missionaries regularly serve. With Elder Duncan as chief chef, and Elders D’Eon, Zhou, Sutherland, and Alley, they all worked together to serve a chicken dinner to 40 women living on the streets of Montreal. These women struggle with drug addiction and/or mental illness.
“Elder Clifford and Elder Williams, along with Sister Margrin and Sister Hawkes, sorted food, created hampers and made massive batches of Rice Krispies treats. While playing their ukuleles, Sister Gottenbos and Sister Nabrotsky provided cheery Christmas music with their melodious voices. It was such a beehive of awesome, consecrated service! The true Spirit of Christ was seen and felt by all who were there. We didn’t need to be surrounded by familiar loved ones; we were surrounded by ‘new to us’ dear ones.”
After our brief ‘masked’ visit to Chez Doris, we saw our missionaries glowing because they were “in the service of [their] fellow beings, they were only in the service of their God” (Mosiah 2:17). We were thrilled and felt it was the highlight of our Christmas Day, 2020. We then determined to include a visit to our down-and-out brothers and sisters as part of our new Canada Montreal Mission’s Christmas tradition. My journal entry continues, “Last week we were thrilled with our Key Indicator report showing four baptisms! Our faithful, determined, obedient, hard-working missionaries are seeing the fruits of their labours…it is harvest time, and what a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas…many people call it a white Christmas!”
Certainly, our Christmas season of 2020, in Montreal, Quebec, was a time never to be forgotten.