1.MBC wakes up, groggily checks her watch on the night stand, gasps in a panic, and shakes Steve, crying, “We have to go! We're going to be late!” She then realizes that she is looking at her watch upside down and that it is 5:45 am, not 9:00 am. Fortunately, Steve is a hard sleeper, so he appears unaffected by the false alarm, still clearly asleep as he murmurs something about pudding.
2.MBC and Steve drive to church. This takes exactly 1 hour and 5 minutes, down from the hour and a half it took them the first 5 weeks of Canadian church. Not getting lost on the way to the chapel is the secret to their time-saving success.
3.Despite the fact that it is sunny and warm outside and that she is wearing her gray fleece jacket over her summer church clothes, MBC nearly freezes to death during the first meeting. At one point, she recalls that she has one sock in her bag and puts this on to slow the onset of frostbite. She is wearing socks and sandals at church. Well, one sock and sandals. She feels like an optometrist from the 1980s.
4.After the first meeting, Steve and MBC adjourn to the parking lot for juice boxes, granola bars, and a break from the frigid indoor temperatures.
5.The average age at church is 70-years-old. During Sunday School, MBC reflects that despite Steve's protestations, living in a seniors community is a good idea. The commercial for the assisted living home on PEI always tempts her to move in and enjoy the rousing card games with the elderly that the advertisement seems to promise.
6.After church there will be a luncheon. There is the distinct smell of meatballs wafting through the building during the third hour of church. Moments before the meeting is meant to be over, MBC begins whispering to Steve. “Meatballs. Meatballs. Meeeeatbaaaaalls.” The meeting runs long. Does the man speaking not realize there are meatballs?!
7.The meatballs are good.
4 comments:
Fascinating! I want to know more about church outside of the US!
Do you have any theories about why they are mostly older? Is it more like a branch? Do you feel more connected as a ward family?
I have so many questions!!!
Um . . . whose grey fleece jacket were you wearing, exactly??
Alyssa--It is a branch. It's in a district, so there are no wards in the immediate area, but this would be a branch anyway, because there are only about 30 people. Younger people move in and out of the branch, but it seems like only the older people stay in the area. Nova Scotia as a whole (the province, not just the church) loses people because of a lack of jobs. Because there are so few people, it is quite a connected unit.
SCS--MY grey fleece jacket. The one Mom packed for me and told me to keep, because I'm her favorite daughter.
I was worried about the meatballs, glad they pulled through. I am cold just reading this post.
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