When President Thomas S. Monson and his wife, Sister Frances J. Monson, entered a downtown Salt Lake City hotel's banquet hall Oct. 4, time and distance seemed to vanish for them and the 350 people who had gathered for a Canadian Mission reunion. Toronto, where the mission had its headquarters, seemed not so far away and, while many pages have come and gone from calendars over the years, memory made it seem just a short time ago that they were serving together as missionaries.

Photo by Gerry Avant

President Thomas S. Monson, with his wife, Frances, attend Canadian Mission reunion Oct. 4. As a birthday gift, missionaries who served under him presented them a painting of the mission home in Toronto, Ontario.

President Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, presided over the Canadian Mission from 1959-1962. He and Sister Monson were guests of honor at a dinner meeting that served a dual purpose: a missionary reunion and a celebration of their 80th birthdays this year, his on Aug. 21 and hers on Oct. 27.

Missionaries who served in the Canadian Mission commissioned a watercolor illustration of the mission home and presented it to President and Sister Monson as a joint birthday gift.

President Monson reflected on his call by President Stephen L Richards of the First Presidency to serve as president of the Canadian Mission. He and Sister Monson had just three weeks to prepare to leave for Canada. They traveled by train with their two young children, Tommy and Ann; Sister Monson was expecting their third child, Clark, who was born several months later in Canada.

They were met in Toronto by President J. Earl Lewis and his wife, Leah, who had served for three-and-a-half years in Canada. Some missionaries who served under President Lewis also attended the reunion with their spouses.

When President and Sister Lewis left, President Monson said, he realized that he had responsibility of presiding over the entire provinces of Ontario and Quebec which, at that time, had six member districts, 55 branches, more than 5,000 members and 168 missionaries. He was just 31 years old; he said he felt the weight of that responsibility on his shoulders.

"I went out behind the mission home at 133 Lyndhurst Ave. I got down on my knees...and I poured my heart out to Heavenly Father. I said, 'I will give this mission everything I have, but I have just one wish — that I'll not lose a missionary.' That wish was fulfilled."

As he looked over the missionaries and their spouses at the reunion, President Monson said, "I like the quote, 'God gave us memories that we might have June roses in the December of our lives.' Some of our missionaries have had their Decembers and have passed on. I've grieved over each one. I rejoice in your accomplishments. I grieve in your sorrows. I'm your mission president. I don't forget you, and I hope you'll never forget me, and my dear wife, who is the epitome of what a mission president's wife ought to be."

President Monson said that he wanted "to have the finest mission in the Church. And I think we did." He delighted the audience when he held up his report to the First Presidency, dated Jan. 15, 1962. In the report, he listed three objectives the mission had determined to achieve:

1. Appoint and train local members in leadership positions, thereby relieving full-time missionaries for proselyting.

2. Initiate and direct an adequate chapel building program.

3. Improve missionary effectiveness.

As a measure of success, President Monson reported that in 1959, 57 percent of the branches and districts had missionaries presiding over them. At the end of 1961, all the member units had local leaders.

He spoke of some of those leaders, such as Irving Wilson, president of the St. Thomas Branch, who decided that if the branch were to move from its rented hall to a new chapel, they would need people to help build the meetinghouse. President Monson quoted President Wilson, who said, "We ought to have a building designed by a Mormon architect; and since we don't have an architect who is a member of the branch we need to convert one." President Wilson looked in the Yellow Pages under "Architects," and invited one to learn about the Church. He did the same so that the branch would one day have a Mormon builder, a Mormon mechanic, a Mormon brick mason, "a Mormon this and a Mormon that," President Monson said.

Five or six organists played at the first meeting held in the new chapel, President Monson said. When he asked President Wilson where the organists came from, the branch president replied, "We baptized them." He had done the same thing with musicians as he had with people in the building trade; he found people with musical talent or interest and invited them to Church where they learned of the gospel.

President Monson recounted incidents involving various missionaries, always calling them by name.

"I had the best missionaries," he said.

Earlier in the program, Sister Monson was presented a bouquet of yellow roses by Vaughn Pulsipher, representing the "Monson missionaries." He paid tribute to Sister Monson, noting that they appreciated her down-to-earth approach and her welcoming them into the Monsons' home, "making it our home as well."

On behalf of fellow missionaries, Robert Warnick read an open letter to President and Sister Monson. In part, the letter stated:

"Through your words and actions, you have both shown us how the Lord expects that we will behave in this brief sojourn on earth; and, in spite of our failures, most of us are striving to live up to the examples you set."

The letter thanked President and Sister Monson for many things, including, "Remembering our names, telling our relatives that we were wonderful missionaries, speaking of your love for Canada in your talks, continuing to attend mission reunions, listening to us when we speak to you, visiting us when we are sick, responding to requests for counsel, letting us know by your actions that you are still in love, reminding us that 'He whom God calls, He qualifies,' devoting your lives to the Lord, attending the funerals of our companions who have returned home, proving an example and, again, remembering our names."

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