snow up to here, hot 'n tots, and 'i don't want to answer that boring question' (or, canada day 3)

We experienced the Daylight Savings Time switch for the first time ever while there, being that AZ doesn't follow that ridiculous custom.  (ha)  Leap forward, spring back, right?  So we lost an hour of sleep and got up nice and early to get on the road for Bancroft, 2.5 hours north of Toronto, where Connie spent the last 9 months of her mission.  It was wet and chilly as we left the city, but what's new?  We haven't seen the sun since Thursday in Phoenix!

It's totally a cute, back-woodsy town.  We saw much snow.  (And no, I didn't notice that "Jug City" shop while I was there.I think it's a post office type place?

And we were introduced to Connie's new family, who are so sweet and humble.  The church there is just a small branch, held in an old bank, which totally reminded me of Wenden Branch growing up.

Dan and Becky were the speakers for Sacrament meeting, Connie bore her testimony, and I played a cool "Love at Home" arrangement on the piano.  All went well.   It actually started snowing during Danny's talk.  The woman behind me whispered to look out the window.  As I turned to see the light flakes that melted as soon as they hit the street, I whispered back, "my Canadian experience is now complete."  "This is nothing!" she laughed back.  And that's pretty much what everyone said.  When we were shivering in the cold and marveling over the snow banks, they'd say, "This is nothing!  This is a mild winter!  Just one month ago the snow was packed up to here!" and they'd point out just how  high the snow had accumulated this winter.

They were nice enough to hold a luncheon for us-another thing that totally reminded me of Wenden Branch as a kid-which was so very kind and allowed us to mingle a bit with the people there.  We had some memorable moments with a few of the branch members, but I've decided not to include them here out of respect.  I'll just say they were sweet and welcoming, but certain things they did and said made us giggle.

Meet Liam, who is the Branch President's son and the only baby in the whole branch.  His dad was a convert of only 5-6 years, and got called to be the branch president after only 2 or 3!

On the other side of the bank building/church was Connie's apartment.  You can see her balcony there on top, and if you look to the right, you see our little rented PT Cruiser that we lived in for 6 days.

 

After tearing Connie away from some of her favorite people, we did a little drive through Bancroft, visited some of her other friends, and marveled at all the snow.  ("This is nothing!" Connie reminded us.)

The ride home was full of more giggling and silliness.  Connie kept pointing out the "hot 'n tots" or "numbchunks" or whatever, I couldn't ever remember their real name [real word:  innunchuk?] and I think at one point Connie just decided we were too silly to talk to.  *giggle* (if you look closely at the exact middle of this picture, you see one of them; built by indians long ago to mark their way, or something)

          

We then drove back to the Toronto area where we met up with the Chris and Kris Latchman family for dinner. Bishop Latchman was from India (Becky and I were groaning at the idea of eating more weird food), but this meal was the best we'd had in 3 days!  Honey roasted pork and chicken, yummy salad, pasta, garlic bread, peas, and then for dessert he brought out lemon cake, ice cream, pineapple, raspberries, and blueberries.  The good food just kept coming. 

{It says a lot, does it not, that the food made such an impression on me.  Seriously, chicken feet the night before. . .CHICKEN FEET, PEOPLE!}

 

Bishop Latchman is quite a character and one of the most irreverent people I've ever met.  Funny and sarcastic and you really gotta try to keep up or he'll bury you and embarrass you. Interesting for a Bishop, but we learned how to hold our own.  In the end, I think his briskness-to-the-point-of-rudeness was all an act, just a show.  But man, was he always "on." And his cooking made up for all the sarcasm.  (Becky and I kept looking at each other and saying how happy we were during the meal.  lol)

For example, we'd ask him about where he was from in India and he'd say, "I don't want to answer that question; that's a boring question.  Ask me something interesting."  We'd ask about his name (an Indian named Latchman?) and he'd say the same.  You basically had to dish it right back out or be squashed by his tactless nature.  Interesting, but funny.

Here he is with his Friend Richard (who introduced himself as Richie Babe) and the two of them together are just hilarious.  They had a whole routine going on in which they used Becky as a prop "She's got eee-vry-thing!!" Which I know means nothing to you all, but I want to remember it because it was just so dang funny. 

Before we left, we all exchanged facebook/blog/email info and left without shaking hands because he refuses to shake anyone's hand.  {hello, Howie Mandel}. 

From there, back to the Burnses at 10p for one last night.  Though it was late, we still chatted for a while and discussed the next day's trip to Niagara Falls.  Little bit of drama there with the directions and maps and driving (Dan and I do not travel well together), but Burnses worked it out for us.  In bed by 11, then didn't even set the alarms and had a nice good sleep.