Montreal Day 2 Part 1 (June 21st) This is a day the Lord has made

Today came way too soon. We crashed into bed at about 2am, and we were so exhausted from traveling that we weren't ready to greet the sun. The boys had been in the car for three days and were stir crazy and Ethne was stir crazy from one long day of sitting on a plane and sitting in airports. They were bouncing off the walls. Garrett and I were emotionally as well as physically exhausted. And poor little Beckett just wanted to be put down. He isn't a fan of being held all the time. He desires to be put down in bed to sleep so he was SO HAPPY to be in his own bed again.
I had very little sleep because I had to feed baby in the night so I was still sleeping when Garrett was up getting ready for the day. When I got up to feed baby again he said church starts in an hour are we going? How do you feel? Truthfully I felt tired, hungry and SUPER GRUMPY. I didn't at all feel like church. I wanted to sleep and sleep and sleep. I thought about praying and asking Heavenly Father if it was OK for me to stay home this one time even though no one was sick(that and a new baby are the only reasons we miss church). But there was a problem. My heart was so full of gratitude for the blessings my HF had given me the day before that I just didn't have the heart to ask. I was so grateful for all His love and help that I wanted to do hard things for Him to show Him my gratitude. I had the feeling that He knew what we'd been through the day before and He would probably say it's OK not to go, but I felt such love and a desire to show that love that I didn't want to even ask.
So, I told Garrett I felt too blessed to stay home and he said "That's funny because it's exactly how I feel".
So, we went to church. We stopped at a grocery store to get bagels and bananas(something we never do on Sunday) so we could eat breakfast on the way. We had tried so hard the day before to make it to a grocery store, but nothing was open that late at night. We had nothing to eat and we were already late for church so G just ran in and ran out.  While he was in there we had a strange old lady bending over and staring at our license plate. It gave us all a creepy feeling how long she was there and how odd she was acting. I rolled down the window as she walked by and said Can I help you? She answered in a Haggard old lady Disney voice "no, I was just trying to figure out where you were from but I couldn't read it". I told her we were from Utah and she said "Well, Welcome to Montreal. How long will you be here?" I said 3 months and she looked shocked and said "OH! well welcome to Montreal". We all laughed as she tottered off.
We got to church late and all seats in Sacrament meeting were full so we brought some in from a classroom and sat in the back. The speakers were a new couple in the ward who looked like senior missionaries but were not. They were from Baltimore and brought here by the spirit. Everyone in the room was so interesting looking that I just couldn't focus. I just had a strong desire to talk to everyone and find out where they were from and what their story was. This repeated in Sunday school. We were late to that meeting because we went to help the children all find their classes. The primary here is VERY small. Most of the branch is made up of elderly people it seems. There are almost no youth or children. There is one class for Junior primary where Ethne made the third child and one class for senior primary where Enoch and Ezra were two of five children. They nearly doubled the size of senior primary. :)
I nursed Beckett after sunday school so I was late for R.S. and what a bummer. They had just set up a French branch and an English branch so people have all been moved around and don't know each other. Everyone was standing up and telling who they were, where they were from, and a little of their story and I MISSED most of it. I had just spent the last  hour and a half wishing to know these people and it was going on while I was in the mother's room. I did at least get to hear probably 1/3 of them though so that was nice. There was a woman from Costa Rica, Several from South America(they didn't say were specifically), one from the British isles, some Canadians, a few from the states, a few from Mexico(I think), Some native French Canadians and Some English Canadians, it was quite a mix and unfortunately I missed most of it. I felt so excited to see so many people with different stories to share. One lady who only spoke Spanish was visiting with the missionaries. She was so old and feeble she wasn't able to get out of her chair without two sisters helping her up. She was leaving the meeting early but what impressed me was her spirit. She couldn't understand a word and yet she was feeling the spirit so strongly and radiating it back to others. She passed by me and she grabbed my hand and squeezed it and just looked me in the eyes with such love and sincerity I nearly cried. What a sweet sweet sister. That experience alone was worth the effort it took to get to church that morning.
I learned a lot from this experience. I learned that the more thankful we are the more strength we find to obey and do hard things. I learned that spiritual upliftment can feed the soul even when the brain is too tired to listen and to think. And I learned about the spirit that can be felt when sisters from all over the world meet, with all their differences, not even able to speak the same languages and it was a beautiful thing. God bless the members of the Montreal Stake.