We learned recently that the Church has 18,000 vehicles in its fleet - 10,000 of which are in the US and Canada. The Edmonton Mission has 74. Considering the size of the Church's fleet, and a three-year life cycle for each car, the Church buys an average of 24 new cars every business day, and sells the same number. The Church's current vehicle of choice for our mission is the Toyota Rav4 with all-wheel drive. We've received 14 since being here and there are 16 more on order.

12 of the 14 Rav4s we've received have been red.

When it's said that the Church sells an average of 24 cars every day, it's really being said that mission vehicle coordinators sell the cars. That's one of my responsibilities. Cars are typically sold to members and used car dealers. If a car is difficult to sell it's sent to an auction.

The Church budgets approximately $20,000 to purchase a mission vehicle and another $20,000 to operate and maintain it. This means that it takes three full tithe paying adult Canadians to purchase and maintain just one vehicle.

Other vehicles in our mission's fleet include: Nissan Rogue; Toyota Corolla and Highlander; Chevrolet Cruze, Colorado and Silverado; Subaru Legacy and Impreza; and Dodge Caravan.

Though my assignment as vehicle coordinator is not glamorous, it is rewarding. I find satisfaction in contributing to the success of the missionaries in this mundane way. I have experienced God's help in fulfilling this assignment. Last week Sandy and I took a group of new missionaries to an office so they could apply for Alberta Province driver licenses. I had my briefcase with me to carry papers needed to complete the application process. As I was about to get into our car to leave, without thinking about whether or not I had left anything in the office, a "banner" popped up before my eyes, The banner had one word written in bold capital letters, BRIEFCASE. The thing that made this prompting important is that my briefcase also contained material that I needed for the next morning to train these new missionaries. There would have been no way to get my briefcase the following day in time for the training meeting.

Oil refineries are prominent in and around Edmonton. These pictures were taken as we traveled to the mission office on a "blue-sky" day. The puffy clouds of smoke make interesting formations.

It's 8:00 AM and the current temperature is -6 degrees F. With the windchill it's -22 degrees. The overnight low was a -10 degrees F. During the month of February the temperature got above freezing 11 days. Below are the temperature ranges we experienced during February.

                High          Low

Coldest     -2              -17

Hottest      61              36

Pattisons

The president of the Canada Edmonton Mission is George C. Pattison, and his wife is Lisa Downey Pattison. They are from New Brunswick, Canada, and have five children. The president was a missionary in the Utah Ogden Mission; Sister Pattison served in the Canada Halifax Mission.

This week is our first "transfer" week. Fifteen new missionaries arrived yesterday. They met their trainers today and left for their assigned areas. Fifteen other missionaries have completed their missions and are going home tomorrow.

An endowment session was held this afternoon for the missionaries going home. Sandy and I were set apart as ordinance workers in the Canada Alberta Temple so that we can assist every six weeks with these special sessions.

The snow is so dry here that leaf blowers are used to clear driveways and sidewalks.

The exchange rate is 1 US dollar equals 1.31 Canadian dollars. When we buy something we multiply the price by 0.7 to know what we would pay at home. The cost of living is about the same.

Canadians have done a good job with their currency. They eliminated pennies and round the final cost of something to the nearest nickel. They've also done away with paper $1.00 bills. They have nickels, dimes, quarters, and one and two-dollar coins. Paper currency includes $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100. Currency has a clear vertical panel, is color-coded, has large numerals for the visually impaired. For people who are blind, the denomination is written in braille in the upper left corner.

Left to right, top to bottom: nickel, dime, quarter, one dollar, two dollar coins

Currency

The clear vertical panel is visible in this $5 bill

The Edmonton Alberta Temple was dedicated December 11, 1999. It's a small temple at 10,600 square feet. The Redlands California Temple is slightly larger at 17,300 square feet. The Salt Lake Temple is 385,000 square feet.

A "cottage meeting" was held this evening in the mission president's home. Five Mandarin-speaking YSA investigators and converts came. There are eight Mandarin-speaking missionaries in Edmonton, four of them from China or Taiwan, who prepared Asian food for the gathering. Brother Spencer, (standing) the Institute Director at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, taught the lesson. It was a nice evening. We hope to have cottage meetings in other homes in the future so that Mandarin YSAs can further integrate into the Church and learn about LDS family life.

The Church publishes the Book of Mormon in 110 different languages. Below is a photo of two translations; on the left is Hindi (India) and on the right is Igbo (Nigeria).

Different languages take a different number of words to say the same thing. The picture below shows the Hindi translation on the left and the Igbo translation on the right. Quite a difference.