Tour de Metcalfe

Visitor's Center Helpers

2011-12-31T15:00:00.000-08:00

We are in good spirits holding down the fort at the visitor's center in Paris. The regular couple have taken a trip or some thing and so we were asked to keep the center open. Like all assignments we were sent on our own and scramble to get things going. I think the story of the couple missionaries is to fumble through things until we get it right.

We have had three contacts today and two yesterday and the we hope for more today as the day is still young. The missionaries use this place as a place to meet their contacts and give lessons. There is a large room with pictures and explanations of each but I go around with the people who come in to answer any questions and add some needed information. In a smaller room are two TV's with videos of various teaching and the testimonies of the 12 apostles. the last room in the back is for missionaries who teach lessons to their amis or friends of the church and a sound room for CD's. We have continued to have people come and I was able to get a person to want further contact with the missionaries.

We are waiting until after the new year for the apartment search to continue so we will be in Paris for at least another week. We will be with the young adults next week, so that will give us something more to do.

We had a good conference with the other 10 couples in Blois, which is on the Loire River. We were able to get some good games and interaction helps from the other couples. We did get to see a huge chateau and walk around Blois. The members fed us well on the second day at lunch but we went to two restaurants for the evening meals.

We had a miracle happen on our trip. I left my brief case in Angouleme and in it I always put the keys to our place in Paris. There are three large french keys plus the small chain and metal container for the consecrated oil attached. All in all there is some heft to the combined package. I called Angouleme and arranged for Carole Serard to bring the brief case as she was going to visit a friend in the outskirts of Paris. I wore a pair of slacks to the couples conference because the president told us to come casual. Each evening as usual I would empty my pants pockets and put everything on the dresser. Each day I would don the same pants. On the way home in the train Carole phoned us and said she couldn't find the keys in the brief case. Joanne thought that she had left her key in the apartment, but she looked in her purse once more and in the far recesses of her purse she found her key.

When we met Carole at the subway exit I couldn't find my keys in the case, so we went home and the three of us entered the apartment. We gave Carole some money for the two train rides, coming and going, and then I put my hand in my pocket to take out some change for the metro. She refused but I dropped it into her hand bag anyway. I then sat back and placed my hand back in my pocket and touched something metal. I grabbed what I felt and pulled out the keys that had been lost for three days. We all looked at the keys with wide eyes knowing that there was no way they should be there. I emptied my pockets for three nights, the keys were heavy enough that I would have felt them in my pocket, and when I went in the pocket for change I would have felt them. Heavenly Father can do what He must to help His children on this earth and I am thankful that He sent a message that we were under His care.

We wish all of you a Happy New Year or, as I would say, have a frantic first, and all the best for 2012.

Arrive in France

2011-12-22T07:57:00.000-08:00

We left the airport with hugs from Heather and Josh. It is always tough to leave family knowing that we won't see everyone for 18 months. It is good that I have enough technology in my brain to get us to the blogs so that we can see what is going on with some of you. The flight was uneventful and we even managed a few hours sleep. I had the chance to talk to a frenchman headed to his home in Lyons as he was coming from his work in Las Vegas. I gave him some reading material and we said goodbye.
At the airport we meet the Assistants to the President, Elder Hall and Elder Duarte. Elder Duarte is from Portugal. It took us 2 hrs. from the airport to the mission home due to bottle necks on the freeway. We talked along the way and were able to get a feel for the mission.
At the mission home we met President Poznansky and his daughter Marie. The President's wife was off to Angers to take care of a problem with their home there.
After lunch we got squared away with a cell phone, keys to our apartment and off we went with the AP's. The AP's paid for our metro pass for the rest of the month and away we went on the metro with all our bags. On the way we made two contacts, one with a less active sister. I was able to get her name and phone number.
The apartment was at the next to the top floor. Sixty-two steps up on an almost circular stair case. We were exhausted by the time we reached the door and it is a good thing two young Elders were there to get our bags up the stairs. We are staying in Paris because the church has not been able to find us an apartment in Lille.
The place we live in is a studio apartment. It was for 4 elders with bunkbeds at each end of the long room. The zone counselors who were there before us broke one of the bunk beds into two single beds for us and left us enough to eat until we could buy some food for ourselves. There are four study desks, a eating table in the middle of the place, and a bathroom fully equipped. The stove and sink plus some shelves are opposite the dinning table. The place is big enough for the two of us.
The 62 steps, the 400 meters to the metro, the 400 meters to the platform, and the same to get out of the metro has changed us physically. With all the waalking we are doing, my calves are big enough to take to market and we have so much more stamina. The other benifit is that we only eat two meals a day so our weight is dropping. The weather is not too bad. It has rain lightly a few days and got down to 38 degrees on one day, but the temperature has raised to around 50 degrees yesterday and today.
We did have one bad experience that made me angry. I put my wallet in my pants pocket and my suit coat was over my pocket. My raincoat was over all that, but I think that I looked to well off and a group made me their mark. On a rolling sidewalk in the metro four people, one right after the other, bumbed into the side where my wallet way and when I got to the end of the sidewalk to get my metro pass out, the wallet was gone. Driver's license, 30 euro, debit card and my metro pass were in the wallet along with photo copies of my passport and the two visas to France and Belgium. It was a good thing they were only photo copies.
We came to the church visitor center and used the phone to cancel the debit card and then trudged home with a new metro card the zone counselors bought me. What a bummer! My feelings about Paris went down a few notches, however when I made my report to the police I got to talk to the officer about the church and that helped build my spirit. I have been able to give out pass-a-long cards most every day in the metro by using some unique approach. Once as we were bout ready to board the metro a lady saw our tags and read out loud the name of Jesus Christ. We talked to her as two other trains past and gave her some literature and the address to the church.
Well that is all for now. We will try to get some pictures to Joanna or Chris so they put them in since our lap top doesn't let us do that.
Love Pappa et Momma,

Goodbye to Summer

2009-09-08T18:16:00.000-07:00

Bonjour to you all, family and friends -

A brisk ocean-like breeze has blown in from the coast today, and I can tell that Fall is just around the corner. Hmmm. As a matter of fact, I'm a bit chilly, and just ran to get myself a wrap to wear while I type. After seeing a few homes being built, we realize that insulation is virtually unused in them. We actually loved coming into our shutter-enclosed, darkened house after being out in the summer sun, because it was like walking into a cool cave. But, as the weather cools down outside of these basically rock or cement block homes, we do begin to bundle up more inside and shiver in our boots a bit on the tile floors.

We have been experiencing some "panic attacks," off and on lately, as we realize that we will be leaving here in just a few short weeks. The thought of having to say goodbye to the Branch makes us very sad and leaves us torn with conflicting emotions. Jack's second counselor, Patrick, says that we can go home for a month's vacation, and then return and be just like we were. We actually kicked that thought around for a while--maybe we should come back and get an apartment here, so that we could finish helping our friends, and tie up our dangling loose ends. Don't worry, sanity does have a way of returning as we began to realize that it would NOT be the same. We have been so blessed with perfect places to live, all furnished for our use, practically falling into our laps. We'd most likely not be that lucky if we returned. Besides, people do move on; we aren't indispensable; and others will step up to fill in the gaps that we have left. It's just that you become accustomed to seeing certain people often, and there is a trust and friendship that builds up between you when you've shared problems with them, and their happy or sad times also. It will be hard to leave.

Then again, there is Alain Kaus, whose latent cooking genes have been somehow activated. He is now in the kitchen constantly with me each week, "helping" with the bachelor repas. On the one hand, I like help; on the other hand, he is so unpredictable he drives me crazy. Last week, he brought in not just his one loaf of honey white bread (which has improved in texture immensely from his inedible first attempt), but also two more "dessert" loafs--one of which was studded with chocolate and one made with goopy caramel. He also brought special jams to eat with them, an orange marmalade, and a scary looking banana confiture; plus two jars of nutty or smooth peanut butter, and a jar of Nutella. He then set about cutting up each of those large, square loaves into slices, while my little helper (79-year-old Adele) and I, tried to make the green salad and keep out of his knife-wielding way. Then he was with us, wringing out a piece of mozzarella cheese that he'd brought, cutting it right on top of the lettuce, as we stood back and let him have his way. He brought Jack some Turkish Halva to try (which appears to be a near-eastern sweet treat), but he hasn't been up to opening it yet, because it really isn't very appetizing looking. Then last night at FHE, he brought me a cooking magazine 'Cuisine Actuelle', and seemed to be saying, as he talked and talked at me, that I needed to learn some French recipes. I like that idea, it's just the many translations of words and terms that I need to master first; but that was nice of him--I think.

The Elders have found a new Ami who is very interested in the church, and has come to church the last two weeks. The bad news is that he is also a bachelor and, as Richard sadly shook his head, this is a Branch of 'Celibataires'. He is a sweet little man whose apartment is cluttered with clocks, as that seems to be his passion in life; and he is under a doctor's care, and gets through life's trials with pills apparently. That seems to be France's answer to every body's problem. I sat behind him last week when Jack spoke in Sacrament meeting about the Apostasy and Jesus Christ and the restoration, and he was nodding his head vigorously throughout, agreeing with everything that was presented. He is wanting baptism, but the Elders want him to receive all the lessons first. He came and played UNO with us and won his first game ever played and killed Elder Chlarson with plus 4's every hand. We have a lot of fun together on Monday nights.

Well, that's a little update from us over here for now. Hope all is going well in your part of the world, stay safe, endure well, and we love you!

Sister Mom (Joanne) Gran'ma

How Grows Our Garden

2009-08-31T18:39:00.000-07:00

Bonjour -

Our summer days are winding down, and we feel like we are almost on borrowed time hoping for a harvest of the gospel seeds that have been sown these past 20 months. I love the analogy of the good seed (from Alma 32) that is planted in our hearts (that has to be a good spot!), that if you do not cast it out with your unbelief, and resist the Spirit, it will begin to swell and grow. When this happens, we begin to see and understand and become enlightened, and the fruit of our faith becomes delicious to us. It's so wonderful to read in the scriptures how the word of God works in our lives.

The actual garden that Jack planted and learned from, did rather well, and we are enjoying the fruits of his labor. We have tomatoes for us and some to share, which is always nice. I actually was a little nervous when he brought in the very first one, because it really did look slightly bizarre. It's skin was strangely transparent, and you could discern veins showing through it, all yellow and greenish in color. I took a knife to cut into it, and was loath to release those fluids into the atmosphere! Eeeek! (I've probably seen too many old science fiction movies, do you think?) I don't know where that one came from since all the others have been fairly normal in comparison. He got a tiny crop of peas and a few beans, and then cleared out the old vines and popped in more beans, which promptly sprouted and just finished flowering, so we'll see what we can get there again.

Sophora Croq was 17 when she became the "black sheep" of her active Mormon family, and was excommunicated for her unrepentant actions. She had a son, fell out of love, and lived with other men, off and on, until she began to see how this was affecting her 5-year-old boy, Jeremie. Her mom brought her to church in Angouleme, a 40 min. drive from where she lived, and we drove out to see her several times after that last year. We were stymied because she was living with someone at the same time that she was making overtures to return to her faith. When she finally sent him packing several months ago, we returned and began to teach her again. Jack started at the beginning with her, using Preach My Gospel, and the day that she prayed aloud was such a great breakthrough. Jeremie loves to pray, but when Jack told him that it was his mom's turn, his eyes got wide with wonder, because she hadn't done it before with him. We all sat quietly with heads bowed, waiting for her to find the words, and I was so surprised when the talkative little boy stayed silent also. After 2 long minutes, she gathered the courage to talk to her Father in Heaven, and said a beautiful prayer, asking for his help to come back into his fold. Her case has been reviewed, and after some personal interviews she will be cleared for baptism. We had a very good lesson with her last time, when Jack had her read aloud all 39 verses in Hebrews 10. It is all about how the Lord accepts repentance, but that it is a sacred promise that must not be reneged on, or it's as if you are trampling the Son of God under your feet. It's a powerful message of having patience and enduring to the end for our final reward. I think she is scared of failing, because she knows it will be hard in many ways, but she seems willing to continue to pray for help, and to ask (as Jack suggested) if there is anything else she needs to do in her life before being baptized again. We hope she keeps the date to keep moving forward.

Joao and Sandra are in a tizzy with their new baby, and his worries about his continuing health concerns have him even more frazzled. We dropped by for our appointment and found the social worker with Sandra in the kitchen, the kids running around the house, and Joao complaining about the temperature he's had for several days which makes him unable to take his medication. He brought out a thermometer, and yelped when he saw that his temperature was normal, and ran to get his shot kit. He came back to where we were sitting, pulled out the needle, and began the process of filling the chamber and flicking the needle with his fingers. He was just pulling up his shirt to plunge that thing right into his liver, when Sandra gave him a horrified shout to STOP! She made him take himself into the kitchen to do it, so we wouldn't have to see it. I knew he'd done it when I heard the loud OW! from the next room; darn, we miss all the fun! They haven't come to church for over 2 months now, and it's always the same excuses: it's too hard on the children, 3 hours are too long for them, the members don't like hearing noisy kids, Sister Metcalfe can't speak French to them (so they did notice that!) Jack talked like a Trojan, countering their every objection: We've all been where you are now with the kids, people do understand your plight and would like to help, and my wife is ready with a lesson and gets help in the translation from the Elders. We had such high hopes with Sandra, but maybe she needs to develop at her own pace, so we don't lose her completely. We need to ask the Lord's help on this, and ask for a change of heart, and more patience and desire for the gospel of Christ in their lives.

So there you have our gardening efforts . . . it begins with the planting, and continues with all the growing pains, and I'm not sure how long the harvest lasts, because those seeds are too important to give up on. You hang in there too, we miss you.

Love,
Sister Mom (Joanne) Gran'ma

What Next?

2009-08-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

Bonjour everyone - Have yourselves a great day today!

It's when I blew up my breakfast oatmeal that I kinda knew what sort of day we would be having! We had an 11 o'clock appointment with Sister Walter to take her the sacrament, and had to leave by 10 to be on time. As we drove into her yard, we were surprised to see that her car wasn't there. That was very strange, so we got out and knocked on her door to make certain, and . . . NO answer. While Jack wrote her a note, I walked around her large back yard looking at the crumbling out-buildings made of those old piled up stones that you see everywhere; and sure enough, the 'mortar' seemed to be dirt that I could easily brush away with a finger. Her near-dead dog roused himself with great effort, and began to do his duty by barking at us, so we gave him the satisfaction of having "chased us away" by leaving, after placing the note in her mailbox. We'd been back home only a few minutes, when I looked for my bag, and couldn't find it anywhere. My heavy, clunky, ever present bag, with all my stuff: my quad de englaise, my scriptures de francaise, my hymnbook (with translated titles . . . the only way on earth I know what I'm singing), and not at all least - my journal! EEEEK! Yes, I really did leave my bag sitting on the back stoop at Chantal's house; I was sick! Jack said, "Don't worry, don't worry, we'll be going back for it." Then the phone rang, and it was Chantal calling to apologize for getting her dates wrong; she thought we were coming the next day, and to tell us "the news" that she had my bag. I mouthed the "news" to Jack . . . "I NEED my bag!" So he told her we'd come by later to pick it up. Then Carole called us to move our meeting with her back by an hour and a half because she was swamped with work, so Jack grabbed me and said let's go right now. We dove into the car and took off once again to Chantal's little commune, Le Pruneau (love that name); because if you feel naked without your bag, you must have your bag, right? We got to meet her son, a young man in his 20's, who was there to help her fix some water damage from an earlier storm, and told her we'd be back in the morning.

Then, we were off to our appointment with Carole, who is such a different person from the timid, stand-offish woman we first met a year ago. Their place of business is clear on the far side of Angouleme, so it seemed like we'd been in the car for hours. We got off to a good start with my small offering of her personal favorite: lemon bars, a treat she cannot refuse! Jack felt that she needed to understand about opposition and agency, having been the victim of a crime, so we read and discussed 2 Nephi 2, which talks about why God allows his children their agency to act and how they are responsible for the consequences that follow. She read the verses, then reread them, and discussed them with Jack. It is a hard concept to forgive someone who has hurt you or a loved one, but she is trying to come to terms with it. I snapped a quick picture of her and Jack, and she told him that she's gained some weight back, and is up to 50 kilos now. At her low point a few months ago, she was at 47 k.; bound and determined to get down to her "magic" number of 42! Fifty kilos is just over 100 pounds, and she is about my height. Jack and her fiancee, Dominique, worked so hard to get her turned around, to realize that she was "losing" her beauty by becoming a scarecrow, not enhancing herself as she seemed to think. It finally seemed to dawn on her, and she has lately had much more spark and liveliness, and we are so glad for her because health is everything. Carole seems to just drink in the knowledge of the gospel, and is reading the Book of Mormon. When she gave the closing prayer, she said something that thrilled us so much, "Father in heaven, please help me so that I can be baptized." It was great.

I was called on to give a different kind of service than usual when we came an hour early to FHE, and set up a barbering station in the kitchen for the Elders. I first tackled Elder Chlarson's hair, which sticks out straight all over his head. It has a coarse, heavy texture that I'd never dealt with before, but he was desperate enough to allow me a free hand and took all the buzzing and clipping and "oopses!' with a determined smile. Then Richard Humblot snuck in, hoping to save himself the 45 euros that a haircut costs him at a shop. His bald pate needed shaving, then I mowed the sides and especially got rid of the heavy, curly forest that grows down the back of his neck. I thought his hair was white as snow, but there are plenty of black ones sprinkled throughout that surprised me. Next came the fussy Elder Hill, whose close cropped, curly, short hair hardly looked like it needed cutting. At first he directed me to just trim some off the sides mostly, but soon he said just take it all, that his hair could never be too short! So, I got after it, and to me it looked the same after I'd finished as it did before; every person is so different from each other! It was his birthday also, so after our lesson he got to blow out the 20 blazing candles on his chocolate brownie cake (what else?), and we all pigged out as we played our rousing UNO games with cheers, groans and great gusto (especially when our resident funny man, Bro. Bourdicheux wins and celebrates triumphantly!).

We honestly never know what's next around here, but the journey has been worth it because of all we have gained along the way. Take care of yourselves, we think about you, and love your place in our lives.

Til we meet again,
Sister Mom (Joanne) Gran'ma

Reflections

2009-08-14T20:01:00.000-07:00

Hello to everyone. We are doing fine and are working to bring some long strivings to fruition. I am convinced that the present day ideas of living together without the commitment of marriage is reeking havoc on France. Couples, for the greater part, are living together and when a major problem arises in the relationship, are going their separate ways even when there are children involved. If the couple doesn't marry and they have children, the state will pay the mother a monthly sum for raising them and the father is off the hook to go his separate way and take little or no responsibility for the child.

We had a case here with someone we know that the father was to take his son for a month during the summer vacation. After 15 days the father had had enough of the fatherly duties and sent the son back to the mother. If the father doesn't claim the child by filling out the necessary papers, the mother is totally responsible and the state then takes on the financial responsibility of 150 dollars a month. Dad goes his way and can continue the cycle all over again.

I am convinced that commitment to each partner in the marriage and to the children we are blessed with is a major contributor to the stability of the child and they will probably follow the example of the parents unless the false ideas of the world take hold. I am also convinced that marriage is not a 50/50 partnership; it is 100% on both sides. When a major problem comes our way and causes a problem, both partners can fight against the urge of pulling away and still overcome the problem.

I do not say that there are not valid reasons for dissolving a marriage, but for the day to day difficulties of life, a total commitment on both sides is needed to weather the storms that come down upon us.

To get people married here in France it takes patience. The documents needed do cost much more that at home and there are medical concerns and a waiting period. So to avoid all that, people just live together and avoid the hassle.

Changing gears drastically, I would like to say that there are few gated communities in France. The reason for that is that each house is gated. Where we live, each house has a wall around it and gates at the driveway and at the door leading into the yard. Some driveway gates only open with a electric door opener. We leave the house with the gate open so I don't have to get in and out of the car to open the gate on our return. Everyone here closes the gates behind them with a key when leaving, even for a short while. There is very little conversation among neighbors in France and when they do talk it is over the fence if it is low enough for them to see each other. We are totally enclosed at our house except for the iron gate out front. Not much opportunity for interaction. Even the church is locked up tight as the property is surrounded by a fence and a gate at the walk-in area and at the drive-in area; so different from at home. I feel that our way is an automatic welcome whereas here it is just the opposite.

In our 2nd summer here we are still amazed at the beauty of this country and the fields are a patch work of different crops and therefore you see a constant variety everywhere. We enjoy the few trips we have within the mission because the landscape changes quickly enough to enjoy every trip. There are greens of every hue and the flowers that bloom here are of every shape and color.

The French take care of their yards and most plant flowers, shrubs, and trees are of different colors. In this area, just about everything will grow, from a certain palm tree to pines. There is a tree here called a monkey tree because monkeys can't climb it due to the way the bark turns upward and it is sharp at the ends. The yards are planted in such a way that something is in bloom all the time and the colors and shapes of the flowers are all different and beautiful.
Unfortunately, in a way, we are seeing the time pass quickly and when the mission home starts making your home bound arrangements it is evident that this part of our life is coming to a close. We love the people here, but know that there are loved ones waiting to greet us at home. It is a little like when we leave this world and are greeted by loved one there. There is a care and love for those left behind, but there is plenty to see and do after this life if we hold to the iron rod.
As I always say to those I know here, Soyez sage, or be wise or be good.

Love
Elder Dad

Random Thoughts

2009-08-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

Bonjour everyone -

We are in the lazy days of summer here in France, and much of the country seems to just close down, as people take their vacations. We have a French native, Elder Del Bel, who just finished his mission. He's in his late 20's, and after joining the church, he decided to serve and was a wonderful missionary, ending up as our Zone Leader. He told us that in his work as a librarian, he was entitled to 16 weeks of paid vacation every year. We could hardly believe it, but he assured us that it was true. School children here seem to get many weeks off for vacation during the year too, plus they also get every Wednesday off, it's nuts.

Living in a real home has changed some things for us, because houses need to be tended. Sister Bouchard loves her mission at the genealogy library in Salt Lake City so much that she is talking about extending. With us leaving at the end of October, if she extends for say, three months into March of next year, that will leave the house empty for quite some time. It has turned into a jungle around here, and we have to beat back the overgrowth of foliage and weeds constantly. Thank goodness we had the Corga's help while they were able. Sandra finally had her baby girl last week, and they plan to return and help us again when they are able. Joao has weekly shots that lay him out completely for his hepatitis, plus he told us that he is HIV positive, and so it would seem that his health is in serious jeopardy. He is very remorseful that he fell away from the church, and made decisions that have left him in this awful physical condition at his young age. Jack has done everything but taken their cigarettes physically from their house (he did threaten to do that too!), to get them to stop smoking, but their habit has them hooked fast so far.

Our experience with the ancient hedge out front has been a saga. Sis. Bouchard said we could do whatever we wanted to in her yard, but I bet she never would have dreamed Jack would take that literally, and tackle the ugly dead part of her hedge out front. He pulled out the sticks that had no foliage, leaving it a kinda shell of its former self, into which he planted new 3 ft. plants to take their place. Then we realized that didn't look good, so he cut off all the branches remaining, which left grotesque spiky stumps, so we knew that they had to go! He started digging around them with a shovel, tied a rope around each one in turn, positioned her car with its undercarriage hook, and pulled those suckers out with that extra added horsepower. It was like pulling out 6 huge teeth by their roots, and he was having way too much fun! We then went shopping for poles and bamboo fencing, because you must cut off the view of your neighbors in France, it's mandatory, I think! Later, at the grocery store, we began talking to a nice English couple in the line ahead of us. Their French wasn't too good, so Jack helped them explain something to the cashier, as she waited for the two Englishwomen ahead of us all to resolve their problem! They were stuck because they had failed to get prices on their bags of produce, so my ever-helpful husband ran back and got that done for them. Everyone was suitably impressed (the Englishman said that he should work there!), but Jack shrugged it off modestly, attributing it to his early boy scout training.

Jack has quite a fan club going on here, between Madeleine, who thinks he's wonderful because he helps in the kitchen, and does dishes, 'like no Frenchman would!'; and Adele, who hangs onto his every word, and tries so hard to please him as she reads the Book of Mormon with us each week, and tries to understand and answer his questions correctly. She has come a long way, and now prays each time we visit. Her prayers are not quite in our usual format yet, but she is talking to Heavenly Father, so that is good.

Sandra knew from the beginning that what he told her was true, it's just the cares of the world that keep her down; she really wants to be baptized. Carole has gone from being lost in the dark, to letting the light of the gospel open her mind to the wonderful knowledge that God knows her, and loves her, no matter what challenges and mistakes she's made. In her last prayer with us, she asked for help so that she could be baptized . . . we were so thrilled to hear that. Sister Trillaud loves him because he got her to realize that she could pay her tithing, which was all she is lacking for a temple recommend; then came up with the idea to help her set aside the money for it. We've become closer to her by helping the Elders as they take her the sacrament each week. Last Friday though, as the Elders met us at her apt. they were talking on the phone, to HER. "Don't come up! Don't come up! I'm going to the hospital, I'm sick!" she told them. We found out later that she has the Swine flu, and will be in quarantine for a month! Next, there is tiny Sister Walter, who lived upstairs while she went to school to become a nurse's aide. She looks on Jack as an older brother, and they get a kick out of each other's humor. We went to see her at her crumbling down old home at Le Pruneau (I love that name!), and she was given the sacrament (she always kneels down), and an object lesson on the three things we need to do to keep our channel of communication open to the Lord. She does two of them, reading the scriptures and praying, but the third one: coming to church, is harder for her. So, we are her little burr under her saddle to keep her remembering what she needs to do. Last is Sephora, who tripped over the traces at age 18, and was excommunicated. At age 27, unmarried and with an active 5-year-old boy, she is making her way back to the fold of Jesus Christ, and it's not easy at all. But she wants more for her son than the world can give, and she knows her life went sour through her own actions. She has welcomed us in eagerly to teach her again what she had almost forgotten. She has shed tears of joy at the thought that she can be forgiven for her past sins and it has been wonderful to be with her on this journey. Then there is ME, I'm in his fan club too, but I live with him, so I happen to know that he's human, not ready to be translated yet, and he needs me to keep him grounded, which I'm getting better at all the time.

I didn't mean to write a book. I'd better end this now. I love you all, my family and friends, and hope you are all doing well. See you soon!

Take care, Sister Mom Joanne Gran'ma

Going Home

2009-08-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

Hello to all of you out there. It has been some time since I have written and so I will overcome my blue funk and get to the news at hand. The first thing is that time is passing so fast and there is so much to do that I am worried there will not be enough time to get it all done. We have good news though with the progress of some of our amis.

We will set the baptism date of Sephora Croq this Thursday. She has made so much progress. With our last visit, we felt the Spirit. Her promise to continue to pray and read the Scriptures is a great factor to her being ready to take on the challenges that are hers now and to progress in the future. I will interview her Sunday and then the Stake President will be here on the 30th for her final interview.

Carole is ready and prays for her baptism to come soon. We need to get her and her fiance married. We will meet with Dominique and Carole to see when the date will be. Getting the family members here that they would like to be present is the problem and we are patient with all that. It has been great to see the change come over her and the major hurdles she has met and conquered over the past year. Each of you would be amazed at the challenges that have faced her, but I know it would not have taken place without the Gospel teachings and the Lord's help. Clement, our young 9-year-old young man, bore his testimony Sunday and wants to be baptized. We need to get his estranged mother's permission or according to French law there will be future difficulties. Even though the father has custody of Clement, the French law allows a mother who is divorced, does not have custody, and has other major problems, to have a consent ability even though she has become disinterested in his real life progress.

The Corga family had a new addition with the birth of a new beautiful baby girl. Joao's health problems are still a problem and his treatment to be cured is difficult on him. They both have cut back on their smoking and it is the only thing holding them back. Sandra is down to 2 a day but this is the hardest thing she has had to do in her life. She has smoked since she was a young teenager and this habit is so tough for her to kick. It makes me want to take on the cigarette manufactures and give them a swift kick.

Our new young family is great for the branch and they both accepted calls last Sunday and were set apart as branch missionary leader and primary president. With their 4-year-old daughter, Jeremy, Sophora's 5-year-old son, and Clement, we had 3 in primary. We have the Corga's two young children to add if we can and we will be up to 5. We had one other visitor Sunday so we are growing. Joanne does such a great job with the help of the missionaries, but having someone there who can be there always and who can speak French will be such a great boon to our progress.

It took a lot out of me yesterday to take 2 missionaries to the mission home for their return trips home. Elder Archer, from Magna, has been here for 4 months and this is the third missionary we have sent home from Angouleme. These are tough moments after we have spent so many good and tough times with him and the others. The other missionary was Elder Green, who served here at the end of 2008 and into April of this year. He was in a city to the south and so we picked him up on the way down to the mission home.

At this time in our mission, it was a sad reminder to us how soon we will be leaving. We love these people with all our hearts and being here for two years and investing our efforts in their eternal opportunities has taken a toll on our heart strings. These are great members and amis and we will leave behind a major portion of our hearts here in this part of France. I know it is a hazard of serving and not being able to bring them home with us, but there are other major projects for us to do and loved ones to see and squeeze with huge hugs when we get home. I have learned the value of a hug since being here. The missionaries do it all the time when they meet. It not only shows your emotions through the force of the squeeze you can give but it puts your mouth to their ear to tell them how much you love them.

We love all of you and are looking forward to showing some of you the sights and the people here when you come. It will be good for you to put the faces and personalities with the names. Until the next time.

Love Elder Dad

Summertime in France

2009-07-21T14:36:00.000-07:00

Bonjour everyone - I hope you are enjoying the warm summer days that we long for so much during the winter! It has been in the 90's consistently lately, and we had some hunker down days, but then a huge rain storm blew in and cooled us off--it was a nice break.

We had our second annual Branch Picnic last week, and had a good turnout at the big shady park filled with tables under tall trees, just like the ones we have at home. Everyone came to relax in their comfy clothes, and play boules (a game where you try to throw a heavy metal ball the closest to a marker). The Elders wore themselves out when they, and a couple of men from our group, got sucked into a pick-up soccer game with some athletic young guys. We had to revive Elder Archer by pouring water on his head. Richard is now divorced from Lucienne, so he invited a young family to come with him, and made sure they had plenty of food to eat. His brother, Patrick had two of his children and their young families with them, plus Jean Pierre and his kids (and their frisky, silly dog Boo-Bah), made for a lot of youngsters running around. We mostly had sandwiches and salads, and Alain's two roasted chickens into the mix, and we passed out our chocolate dessert bars and it was good. Patrick organized a nature walk along the lazy Charente River, where in one particular shallow bend they used to perform their baptisms for the church. Alain picked a bouquet of "Don't Pick These Flowers" from French native flora & fauna beds that were growing along the path, and thrust them at me to carry. Jack told him that if I got arrested for flower-napping HE was taking the rap, not me. I was later able to press quite a few of them in a heavy dictionary we have at home, so we'll see how they do. As we walked, Remy Demolombe pontificated about the world's political messes to Jack (he just nods his head, and tisk tisks here and there) to which Remy smiled and was satisfied. Our big, noisy group managed to disturb a beautiful family of swans from their restful spot in the shallows, but they were patient and waited us out until we got on our way again. It is odd and sad for me not to have been able to talk to the people I've grown to care for here, in any meaningful way. I know I have missed so much by not hearing Jacqueline Demolombe's whole story, as told personally one on one, and she feels it too, as our eyes express what our language barrier cannot.

On Sunday morning, for the first time in 4 weeks, I had children to teach in Primary! It is so daunting a prospect, but I always find a sympathetic helper, and together, with bumbling and lots of humor, we get through it. Today it was Christoph Humblot, who knows some English, who sat in with his 4 year old daughter, Kyana, and translated for me. Then Brother Savreaux brought his two grandchildren, Eva and Julien, ages 7 and 5, with him also, so we had a crowd! What this Primary needs is a good French woman to lead it, and I truly hope that comes to pass one day. I had a 'Prayer' lesson prepared, with a prayer can filled with pictures of things we are thankful for, and things we would ask blessings for; the printed out coloring page from the manual; and a take home project of more pictures to cut and paste about prayer. It adds up to lots of busy work (the less said in fractured French, the better), but it went well, so that was good.

Jack has his fun for the day by going to pick people up who can't seem to be ready when church starts at 9:30. It's frustrating when they don't seem to realize that they are really inconveniencing someone who needs to be at the chapel during the meetings. (You can probably tell this is a pet peeve of mine, but he just wants them to be there so badly, that it doesn't bother him.) Our feeding the Elders lunch each week after church has begun to become an institution, because of all the 'bachelors' we have in the Branch. They began coming too, since we always seem to have enough food for one more. Alain often brings his square bread, that is actually becoming lighter and more edible; and so thus encouraged, he's trying his hand at desserts. He brought in two home made "sugar pies" that had to be chiseled out of their pans. The Fourtina's, home from their three and a half month mission to the Madrid temple, came to speak to us, and stayed to eat afterwards. She was a lifesaver, and brought plenty of extra food, as they brought Madeleine Chauveau with them; so we had enough for the three tables of people that showed up that day.

Well, life goes on, it's kinda nuts, but it's all we have, so let's enjoy the journey, it's worth it. We think of you all often, so don't forget that!

Love, Sister Mom (Joanne) Granny

Lost Sheep

2009-06-29T22:44:00.000-07:00

Hello to all in the outside world. It is getting hot in Angouleme with the temperature reaching into the 90's during the day. Yesterday after church we had a high of 98.6 F. We have an air cooler in the chapel and also the meetings are in the morning so we get the benefit of a much cooler part of the day for our services. The forecast is for hot weather the next ten days. It is not what I call a good time to be out knocking on doors and meeting people in the streets.

It is hard in France to even talk to people about the Gospel of Christ due to the past actions of the government which are the reversal of the U.S. Constitution. As I have said before, the French government has made it very difficult to practice any religion. In France, the government has acted so that the law states"Freedom from religion" and not "freedom of religion." The Catholic Church has gone in debt in France and can't maintain their churches, so the French government has taken control of the ones build anciently, which makes up 97% of the churches once maintained by the Catholic Church. The government has labeled them historical land marks and the persons who do the up-keep are hired by the government agency that controls ancient landmarks.

If the Catholic Church wishes to hold a service in one of the churches controlled by the government, they must rent the church, just like any other private concern. That is why there are music concerts and other activities being held in the churches that are not related to religious services. A good example of this was when we took the missionaries to Poitier for Elder Hill's medical exam. The exam was a part of his visa for staying in France.

Poitier is out of our mission boundaries, but it is the place where people from Angouleme go for their immigrant and missionary visa medicals. We had two exams and they were hours apart so we got to visit the old part of the city and 4 different Catholic churches in that area. One of the buildings was the oldest baptistery still standing in France. It was built in the 11th century and has a large baptismal font where the baptisms were done by immersion. It just so happened that the baptistery was being rented by a business man from Poitier for a luncheon. There was a doorman at the front checking invitations for the catered lunch. A funeral in one of the old churches will run a person a nice sum of change.

The other denominations in France have built and maintain their own churches through member donations. Our church would like to build a temple in France, near Paris, but the French government feels that all church buildings should be open to the public and there are negotiations going on as we speak for a change in the French thinking. The church is making head way in this area. We have just finished negotiations for the donations to be tax deducible, but in doing this, we had to limit the donations to tithing, fast offerings, missionary donations, and temple construction and maintenance. All other donations on your sheet in the U.S have been taken off because the French government considers that their responsibility. A member must sign the donation sheet so that the government knows that the donation was given by the member's free will. Extensive auditing by the government goes on to see that the funds that are donated are in accordance with French law. I feel that this new arrangement will give the church more credibility and gain greater acceptance by the government and will lead to a temple in France soon. There are many influential members of the church in France, and they have been able to help the government understand our teachings and our desire to be financially sound as a church and as members.

We have been doing a lot of work to bring back lost sheep into the fold. Maybe that was the Lord's reason for sending us here. The Corga family has had one problem after another, but we have held fast with them and have been through each problem with them. The French are closing in on themselves. They would like to close the door on immigration even though the Corgas are from Portugal, a European Community member country. We have met each problem head on and, with some American ingenuity, have been able to counter the French government to get the family complete legal status.

Dominique Auje is another project we have been working on for over a year and we are now seeing swift progress in bringing him back. He and his fiance are planning a marriage and Carole is taking the missionary discussions and responding positively.

Sephora Croq is a single mother of a cute five-year-old that we are working with. She kicked out her live-in boy friend and is moving slowly to coming back into activity.

A new brother has moved into the branch. After raising his children with a wife who has been hostile to his conversion, he made a stand in favor of the Gospel and because of this his wife divorced him. He is retired and has moved into the Charente and he has found new strength in the closeness of the branch.

It is good to have success after some very long struggles. We love the Lord and we love the fact that we can be in His service to help others.

Elder Dad

Touched by Music

2009-06-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

Bonjour everyone, from the northernmost point of our, "the South of France" mission. It is almost July, and it's not cool here anymore; just as yesterday in the car after church, the temperature registered 37 cel. (which is 97.6 degrees f.) according to Elder Archer, our on-board expert on most anything!

It's noontime now and the sun is beginning to heat things up, so Jack is out taking a clue from the French by closing our shutters during the day. We're hunkering down for some "indoor" P-day activities, washing sheets and towels for me, while he drove to the bank, and then stopped by to see the Corga's. They didn't make it to church yesterday, and he found Sandra really suffering from the weather with only a couple of weeks left to go in her pregnancy. He drove back to the chapel and picked up a portable fan for her to use to cool herself off, especially at night.

We are sad that the Corga's have missed some really great moments that we've had at church lately. Last Saturday was Angouleme's Musical Fete (festival), and in honor of that, our Branch organized our own little "members of the branch fete". It was funny to hear Jack singing at the top of his lungs in the upstairs shower, the song he was trying to get up the nerve to sing that day; I guess he thought the water noise covered up his noise! The four Americans started it off with the newly popular golden oldie, "Come Thou Font of Every Blessing," with Elder Archer pounding out the music on the piano for us. Then, Bro. Savreaux handed out words to the old favorites he was going to play on his saxophone, and Bro. Bourdicheux broke the ice for everyone by booming them out, so that a joyful feeling of good memories spread through them all. Sis. Demolombe sang from the pulpit in a sweet voice, and Bro. B. asked if he could do it too! So he came forward and sang his old favorite which seemed to be about love, birds and flowers. Then Jack had the best 99-year-old church member in the whole world come up (she'd been looking forward to this for weeks), and she sang a little song from her long ago past. Everyone clapped for an encore, and surprised her so, that all her songs fled from her head as she got flustered. Good thing Patrick Humblot remembered the song she sang last year, and came to her rescue. She sang that for us and sat down, content. Jack decided to throw caution to the wind. He got up and sang "Old Man River, and got a big round of applause for his effort. Bro. B. thought of another song to sing, and seemed to love the attention he got as he stood straight, and sang loudly, using large arm gestures . . . he was a hoot. Sis. Demolombe urged me up, so I sang an old girls camp ditty "The Poor Old Slave" (with its tongue-tangling 3 verses), and "A - You're Adorable" slowly, hoping they would pick up on the alphabet part of the song. We then ate the wonderful desserts they always show up with, and it was a good time for us all.

Then yesterday, thanks to an idea we got from Laraine's ward, we had a sacrament meeting about the hymns we love the most, and why. Jack gave them a week to think about their favorite song from the hymnbook, and then they could come up one at a time to tell us about it, and Bro. Auje would lead us in singing the first verse. Both Bro. Savreaux, and Sis. Demolombe love "Oh My Father," because of the beautiful teachings therein. Jacqueline said that as she was being taught by the missionaries, she knew about Jesus Christ, but hardly nothing about her Heavenly Father, and that is why the song opened up a whole new spiritual world for her. Richard Humblot is always touched by "I Stand All Amazed." Bro. Nadie Parris (a faithful, but divorced ex-missionary in France) was "grateful" to whoever was inspired to have this program, because he said that every day of the week he had good thoughts as he pondered the song he would choose. His choice was, "Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd." Bro. Auje gave a short discourse on the power of music to convey the spirit; and how even people in the middle ages (b. 1091) "Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee," could express the gospel message as well as someone born in our lifetime (b. 1945) "As Zion's Youth in Latter Days." Bro. Bourdicheux said he loves the brightness of "Count Your Blessings" (which is good because the Elders sing it to him a lot when he gets depressed and overwhelmed by his problems)! Our new Bro. Dano loves the vim and vigor of the song, "Ye Elders of Israel"--Oh Babylon, Oh Babylon (I love it too, because I get to sing it with the Elders a lot in our meetings)!! Patrick really likes "Families Can Be Together Forever," and we sang both verses. Then, Jack got up, and he too claimed a piece of "Oh My Father," because of the wonderful truths it teaches about the gospel and the pre-existence. He also claims the song "Come, Come Ye Saints," as the anthem for enduring to the end. But, his favorite song in France is, "Souviens-To"(Remember Me), which is so beautiful and emotional, about our life in heaven before we came here to live on earth. Time was almost up, so he asked if we could sing all 3 verses to this one. Bro. Auje, a very cool, self-possessed seeming man, got up to lead us, and the tears began to stream down his face during just the first verse; it was very emotional for us all.

The spiritual side of our life is mysteriously touched by an element of beautiful music, which inspires our emotions, allowing us to experience unforgettable moments of wholeness; we are so blessed by the hymns of the church and their wonderful sermons in every song.

Love,
Mom (Joanne) Gran'ma

My Love/Hate Relationship with Computers

2009-06-09T18:55:00.000-07:00

You might have noticed that I haven't written for a while; this is to let you know that I am in the repentance process, so hang in with me. Let me tell you how we spent one of our P-Days in May.

Computers and I are adversaries at best, and enemies at worst, and my sad tale will tell you why. Having labored over a letter for four hours (DOES ANYBODY ELSE DO THAT?), I was just about finished when Jack warned me that we had to get ready for FHE. So, I signed off and scrolled up to the top, where two buttons called to me: SEND & SAVE DRAFT. Hmmmmm. I knew that I should push send, but then again, shouldn't I save it first? That sounded so reasonable that I did push the save button, and POOF! the letter vanished into outer darkness.

Ohhhhhkaaay. I sucked it up like we learn to do in this life, put on my "I'm fine!" face, and went to Family Home Evening which can get quite interesting if certain people are there. We had eight in all, and after a good gospel discussion, Jack asked them if they wanted to play boules outside, or Uno? UNO!!! What a bunch of wild boys, they all want to be the winner so bad, even Sister Walter! I sat next to our new Elder Hill, and he didn't cow-tow to me like our departed Elder Gunter famously did. Then Alain Kos started mocking Elder Hill, saying that he was fat (he's not), but he didn't take it kindly, and mumbled to me how he should just go over and smite him some. No wonder Alain had all of his upper teeth knocked out in fights in the Foreign Legion . . . seeing that skinny face of his convulsed in open mouthed laughter was a sight to behold.

Elder Archer and Jack get along great because they think alike on missionary work. But this competitive Elder tries very hard to get the best of Jack whenever he can. This time he thought if he and Elder Hill sandwiched Jack between them, they could work together to beat him coming or going. Elder Hill was not above peeking at his cards if he could, and they caught him three times shouting Uno before he remembered to say it; but he won two games, as did both Sister Walter (who is a great sport putting up with all their boyish exuberance) and I. Then came the best part, what we all wait for . . . dessert. We had leftovers from the Branch brunch, and even some of Richard's often dubious concoctions (a sauce of mashed apples, pears and oranges) he begged us to finish--wasn't half bad.

Back at home, Jack said I should start my letter over while it was still fresh in my head (after all, now that I know what I am saying, it will zip right along). Uh huh. Can you possibly guess what happened to it again, several hours later? I'm not even going there, it's too painful.
I'm sure that's all you can take for now, so I'll write again soon. Take care of yourselves, and remember that we love you.

Sister Mom

Where Did April and May Go?

2009-05-31T18:29:00.000-07:00

Hello to all,

We have been so busy that I can't understand where the months of April and May went, but they are gone and we are way behind in our writing. I feel like the butcher who backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work. We are sorry that we missed a few birthdays, but we promise to catch up.

We are still working with the Corga family, and they are striving to keep the commandments--especially the Word of Wisdom. They both have been smoking for a long time and it has been hard for them to stop. This week, they asked for a priesthood blessing and since that day they have made great progress. They are the best of friends with us and we love them so. Their little 22-month-old girl, Beatrice, calls out frere, frere (brother, brother), when ever she hears my voice, and today they are getting used to sitting fairly quiet in Sacrament meeting.

We are teaching a young woman, Sephora, in her late 20's who has said she has made a mess of her life up until now and wants the direction of the Church in her life. She has a 5-year-old son, Jeremie, who doubles our young primary. We had such a great meeting with Sephora last week and there were some tears of joy shed as we talked about the importance of the Savior in our lives and the special part that Jesus can can play in our future.

The weather has turned hot in the afternoon with clear blue skies. With the good weather, Joanne got the bug to get the yard as it should be. I took out the dead hedge in front. There were six dead plants that made up the hedge with roots that had to be dug up and then severed from the fir hedge plant. It was a two day job. Two of the plants had to be eventually pulled out with a good rope and the car; then new plants put in, and because a 16 foot area was exposed to the neighbors (which is a definite no, no), I put in a bamboo fence with poles painted green like the shrubs. It now looks neat as a pin.

I need to talk about one other thing that is unique here in France and that is the shopping carts. First, to get one you must invest 1 Euro to unlock the cart from all the others outside the stores. You get the Euro back when you return the cart and lock it up with the other carts again. There is a slot in your cart where you place the Euro and the force of the Euro in the slot unhooks the cart.

The carts themselves are different than those in the United States in as much as the two wheels in front and the two in the rear will turn. This make it difficult to steer your cart since you must control four turning wheels instead of just the two in front for you in the States. When the carts get filled, they are unwieldy or, in this case, unwheeldy. The carts need your arm and leg strength to get them to go in the direction you desire. One good thing about the four wheel drive is that if you are standing still and someone is coming at you, it is easier to dart out of the way in any direction at a standing start.

The escalators here have no steps on them when it comes to grocery stores--they are long, flat moving walk ways up and down. The carts can fit on them and the walk ways are grooved as are the cart wheels so that once you get on the walk way the cart wheels fit in the grooves and you stay fixed in the braked position until your front and back wheels hit the pavement again.

Well that's all folks.
Elder Dad

Birds

2009-05-21T20:43:00.000-07:00

Hello to all from Angouleme,

We have just gone through a period of rain and now that the sun is out for a few days, Mother Nature has put on he best dress as all is in full bloom. After being in Cokeville for 29 years we really forgot what beauty really can be like. There are so many different flowers here in the yard that at times it boggles the mind at what colors and smells there are here in France. Outside the office window are three trees that are entirely different in size and in shape. I have watched the trees flower and the leaves change as the season has progressed.

As I sit here typing I can also hear a myriad of tunes played by many different birds in the yard. It is so good to hear the blending of the birds calls here so that it sounds like a symphony with all the various instruments playing in harmony. This is a far cry from the crow's caw that was the only ear splitting sound coming from the trees in Cokeville. It is the difference between classical music and heavy metal.

We are enjoying the branch membership so much that I know that leaving here will be a major emotional situation that I am not looking forward to experiencing. We are progressing and the branch is growing. One retired member returned to Angouleme, an English couple contacted us about moving hear in June, and our member who runs a growing construction company just hired a return french missionary. This missionary has a small family of wife and two children, with a new one coming soon.

We are still working with Sandra Corga. She is having a rough time trying to stop smoking and she has asked for a blessing to help her. We will gather the brethren on Sunday for that. Carol is progressing and we have encouraged her to pray. Praying is something new for the people here because they have never had a conversation with their Heavenly Father. Either they only know prayers that are memorized or they have abandoned religion altogether because of the bad reputation it has had in the last 40 years. To get people to realize that they have a Father in Heaven who loves them is a concept as far removed from them as quantum physics is to the average citizen. The public's view of Heavenly Father is also new to them. Someone that is a resurrected glorified being as is taught in the Bible is so strange a concept and so different from that taught by the Nicene Creed that is the present belief and has been for centuries. It is so different yet appealing to those who will listen that they want to pray and have a meaningful conversation with God as James talks about in the Bible, but it takes time for them to grasp the idea.

We are in good health. We have been in good health throughout our mission even with the damp weather here in this part of France. The weather is like that of the Northwest with overall temperature stability without the constant rain. We do have rainy weeks, but in between a 5 day period of rain are weeks of good weather in the 70's and 80's.

We are doing well and the time is flying by. People are telling us that they want to boycott the end of our mission and go on strike so we can't leave. Our hearts are pulled in two by the love we have for these people and the future of seeing family and friends at home.

Love to you all,
Elder Dad

Week of Supreme Service

2009-05-03T19:04:00.000-07:00

Hello to you all from Angouleme,

This week was a week of service and for me it was a supreme effort. If you didn't know before, I am not a pet lover, not because I don't like animals, but because they restrict your movement so much. I like to take off when ever the desire hits me and with a pet you are in need of someone to watch over the pet.

Well this last week was our turn to help a family that have a dog, fish, two cats, and a hamster. We thought we lost the hamster one night, but we found him burrowed into the very back of his little home filled with cotton batten. Panic struck with the thought of trying to find him. I don't do well crawling on all fours through the house any more. The dog was the only one who could not be left alone, so Joanne and I decided to keep Booba in our garage. We could feed the rest each night at the home of the family.

The first thing I had to do was build a confined area in a corner of the garage so that this fairly big dog couldn't run wild in the garage. She is a little over a year old and is a strong dog. The 9-year-old boy and 13-year-old, slightly built girl can easily be dragged when the dog is on a leash. This dog is strong enough to take a small child on a wild ride on skis on the packed snow.

Once the enclosure was made, we had the dog delivered on Friday. I spent the rest of the day building up the enclosure so she couldn't get over the barrier and filling in the holes in the walls where she could force her way through. Once that was done we knew we could sleep through the night.

The mornings were something else. Early to rise and out with the leash. With the dog out front and dragging me along, we head out down the street. She would pull me along and then stop all of a sudden to sniff and then off again. I do have admit that she walked and pulled fast enough to get my heart rate up to where I knew I had a good exercise. I am the only person I have seen in France that took some plastic bags to clean up after the dog. After a good brisk walk it was back in the yard. The whole yard is enclosed with a fir type bush that is about five feet high in the front and seven feet high on the sides and back. I have a tennis ball and she does chase after it but has no concept of bringing it back for another throw, so that game was short lived.

When we headed out the door, the dog went into the garage enclosure and, lucky for us, was able to stay put without any noise until we returned. It rained much of the week so she was reluctant to go out in the yard. Once the sun came out she would stay out, but when she got excited, which was often, she would start to dig in the grass. I tried to stop her from doing that but to no avail and in the enclosure she would go.

At the end of the week, she was better and on Saturday she even went into the enclosure without being told to do so. It freaked me out because I couldn't find her in the yard and I couldn't believe she could get out. All of those panic feelings went through my mind. I even thought that someone took her, but I soon got rid of that feeling because they would bring her back after 5 minutes since that is all the time it would take for her to take over their lives.

Today the service project was over and the dog went happily back with her owners without even saying a word of praise for our patience and concern for her. I guess that is true service when you do something without a reward.

Everything is fine here and the time is flying by. We had 27 people out to church today and the Elders were able to bring back a family that had been inactive for close to a year. After the meeting, they said they would be back next Sunday. It is good to see progress, even when it is just a little.

We love you and pray for your well being.
Elder Dad

Moving On

2009-04-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

Hello to all of you out there,

The work is moving on and there are some good changes coming from Angouleme. The branch music director has started a choir and we are getting more participants every Sunday. The only problem that I see is the fact that when the choir sings for sacrament meeting there will be more in the choir than in the congregation. But if we continue to grow and bring in new members and those who have been less active our music director will have added a great dimension to the branch. We are planning to have them sing for our stake visitors and for the branch music festival.

We have finally got the Corga family into a home not far from where we live. We have been so busy that we have not had the opportunity to go see the house, but we are invited tomorrow. It is so good to see them out of the hotel room that they have been in for the last two months and know that their life we be more on the normal side. With Joao first month of work coming to an end, it will be good to see him earn a pay check and the family will be on the road to recovery.
Spring is here and the farm fields are brimming with growing crops. It is strange to realize that for the second year we are seeing the crops growing. The other day we noticed the first cut of hay. That is hard for those in Cokeville to take. There is a plant that produces cooking oil and it gives off a bright yellow flower. It is quite something to see the fields blooming on the hillsides with this vibrant canary color.

We are doing well and our health is good although with the cool mornings and the warm afternoons we a sporting the beginnings of a spring cold. If that is all that happens, we will be in good shape.

My gardening skills are better here than in Cokeville. The last time I had a garden there it was killed off by two late frosts that made it impossible to start over a third time with the short season. Here we have peas, beans, tomatoes, and Joanne's spinach. The plants have sprung from the ground with the last three day rain and the warmer weather the last week.

Joanne is getting ready for her third talk in church this Sunday and this is the time that I see stress in her life. The French is coming, but it is not where she would like it to be. Joanne understands much more than she can answer to. Giving talks in French is not something she feels comfortable with. Her French is good when she reads and the members and amis of the church pay a great deal more attention to her talks than most because they want her to succeed.
Well we pray for everyone at home and love you all. Please spread the news of our goings on and the joy we have in serving these great people.

Love,
Elder Dad

Worth of a Soul

2009-04-06T18:05:00.000-07:00

Hello to all of you in this wonderful world,

This morning, when Sandra Corga came to pick up Joao from his mornings work, we talked about general conference that we all participated in yesterday in Perigueux (some 80 miles south of Angouleme). Sandra had her hands full with her daughter, Beatrice, but she was able to hear one talk and parts of others and was impressed by the spirit. She noticed the picture of Sandra and Keith and the children on the frig and said that she wanted a family like that. I said that there were only three things that were stopping her from having her family sealed to her in the temple of the Lord. One was getting married. Sandra and Joao and Joanne and I are going to the city hall tomorrow afternoon to fill out the necessary papers. After a two week waiting period they will be husband and wife. One problem solved. The next question was to set a baptism date, and so she picked Jono's birthday on the 31st of May as the date. She is working hard with her promise to stop smoking and was showing us the gum she was chewing as a way to accomplish that--along with prayer. The final hurdle is to endure to the end. This young mother has impressed me with her determination to do what is necessary to accomplish her goals. With the help of the Holy Ghost and the church teachings and the members, I know that we will be back here in a year to witness a sealing in the Madrid temple.

Some might say that we have paid a high price to bring one person to the waters of baptism, but I also know that we, as a couple have consecrated, all that the Lord has blessed us with to bring souls unto Jesus. This family is worth all the energy we have expended and more. Staying home would have never brought us in contact with this beautiful family, and we would have not have experienced the pure love of Christ that we share with them. We have spiritually adopted them into our family and we would have paid the last penny in our account to see this wonderful blessing come about.

For those who don't know how this feeling fills the soul to over flowing, I yearn that they might experience it some day. The worth of a soul is priceless, and we have seen the change come over this family as they have let the commandments of Christ enter into their lives and make a mighty change in their outlook, love, and willingness to serve others. I know why we were sent here for our entire mission. Without the time to spend with these souls, we could not have seen the change in their hearts. It has taken love, patience, and, above all, time to help them experience a change of heart.

We are experiencing so many wonderful happenings in Angouleme, and have had the privilege to meet and love some wonderful people. Staying home would not have giving us the opportunity to stretch our souls and get out of our paradigm. Being in the box is no longer something we want to do with our lives. We have a desire to consecrate our time, talents, and all else we have to the Lord and His work. Yes, I know that our Heavenly Father could get it done all by Himself, but in His wisdom, He has allowed little old me to grow and love through service.

I love you all and I am so happy to be with Joanne here in Angouleme to give what little I have to offer.

Elder Dad

Not Something I Like To Do

2009-03-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

Hello to all of you;

We are doing fine and the weather has been great, but we need some rain or the farmers here are going to be in a world of hurt. It is interesting that everyone who isn't a farmer loves the sun everyday, but we who have worked Mother Earth know that too much of a good thing for everyone else doesn't feed the population.

We have planted a small garden with beans and peas and hope to put in a little lettuce, spinach (for Joanne), and some tomatoes. The Corga family has been helping with the yard and spring cleaning. We have finally found a way to make their stay permanent and legal according to the confusing laws of France and the European Union. The two entities do not match up with their laws and the French demand that they meet both rules. We have a member who is a plumber. He will hire Joao and we will have them work for us the first month (which they have), and then he has work for them at his home and in his business. They only have to work 15 hours a week for 200 hours total to qualify for assistance and medical benefits.

With a work contract, Sandra Corga, is going to march triumphantly to each office she has been fighting for the past year and win one for her family. Sandra is a real fighter and this will be a great victory for her as she can now meet all the crazy laws here. The problem is that the laws conflict and counter act one another, but victory is in sight.

We went to the funeral of the son of a member last week and as most of you know this is one of the least enjoyable things for me to do. I have almost decided to not show up for my own funeral. We traveled to the small village where the service was to take place and the day was cloudy and windy. The member, Sister Demolombe, was so happy to see us. I, as the branch president, get to do things that the rest of the missionaries can't do and that was to give her the traditional kiss on both cheeks. This is a very important symbol of love and close relationship especially for the older people of France. It was a privilege for Joanne and I to be counted as family. Remi, the husband is not a member of the church, so he had a Catholic service for his son.

The service took place in the small Catholic church in the village. The churches of France are very cold inside, even on the hottest days, but the love of the villagers made up for the cold temperature.

France has lost many clergy and so the service was taken care of by the villagers. I feel that their display of love for the family made the service have a more of a caring feeling. The other thing I noticed was that all the villagers who took part in the service were older than me. The youth of France has given up on most religions and the Catholic church is suffering from a lack of young members. I thought of what is going to happen when these good people of the village die and there is no one to perform their services.

My thoughts went back to our last Stake Conference here in the Bordeaux Stake and the youth choir that sang. There was a marked difference in the number of members in the choir and the ages of the members. Although the people at the funeral had good voices, there were only 9 of them and they were all aged. In contrast, the youth choir at conference came from the Bordeaux area and numbered 45 and showed the vibrant future of the church here in southwest France. I marvel at the Saturday meeting held at stake conference here. The members out number those of my home stake and these members come from places often a 100 miles away. The singing during the priesthood leadership session always gives me goose bumps.

The other thing that is very noticeable in the service held here, was that it was not on a personal note. Everything was scripted and done from rote memory. The personal touch for the family was lacking and, for me, I think the service is for the living more than for those who died. In that aspect, the service was cold as far as remembering the son and the love that was shared by the family. We were given a place of respect in the walking procession to the cemetery as we were placed in the third row behind the wife and children and the parents and sisters. Holding an office in the branch or wards of France is a very respected position and it is very humbling to me to be in that position.

The only personal note was made by one of Francise's two sisters that are members of the church. Marie Lore is married and formerly lived in Minn. but now lives in San Antonio, Texas and Marie France lives in Thaiti. They both flew from their respective homes to be with their Mother and Dad and show their love to their brother. Marie France took the opportunity to take the microphone provided at the grave site service to pay her respects to her brother and give a short testimony on the Resurrection and the importance of Jesus in our lives.

We met with the extended family in an open roofed area of the local elementary school in the village. It now serves 29 small villages in what is now called a commune. France has had to do that because the number of children per French natives is one child per family. As we snacked on cookies and orange juice, I thought that this was so different from the Relief Society providing a meal after the service in a warm chapel. Joanne made soup for the family and we took it to the Demolombe's home the next day, along with two loafs of bread and some cheese. Marie Lore had to explain that this was the way it was done in the church back in the states and elsewhere. They were grateful for our show of love to them. I have found out even more that this it is what it is all about, LOVE.

Well, we have many new amis to teach and the Elders are keeping busy as well as ourselves. We will keep you up to date on the progress in Angouleme.

Love,

Elder Dad

Baptism in Angouleme

2009-03-27T23:31:00.000-07:00

Bonjour everyone -

I sure hope all is well in your lives, as we think of you often, but we have had plenty to occupy our time and energies here, especially lately in our small Branch of the church.

The 58-year-old son of one of the most faithful members I've ever met died last week, and it has been hard on her to lose him, because, of her three children, he was the one who didn't become involved in the church when she was converted and baptized, some 40 years ago. He became a doctor, but when he began to develop the symptoms of diabetes, he went into denial and would not seek treatment until it became too late; loosing first his sight, and then just recently his life. His two younger sisters, both temple married, with active families, flew in from Tahiti and Minnesota for the funeral; and Jacqueline clung to them, as well as to us, for the support she needed. She considered us as family too, (her LDS family), and insisted that we be by her side as we attended the Catholic funeral in the small village where she was born. It was a very interesting experience, in an ancient building made of stone, on a cold, blustery, sad, rainy day; and when Jacqueline's youngest daughter leaned over to tell Jack how glad she was that a priesthood holder was there with them, we were especially glad we were there too.

Bro. Bourdicheux has had some amazing experiences as he got closer to his baptismal date. Because he is living on his pension, Elder Green thought that he'd not have to pay tithing on that money, but that was not true. Then also, Bro. B had staged a mini protest against the French government for taxing his retirement, by not paying his taxes! They came after him for it, so a chunk of his monthly check goes to repay the government until this Oct., making things tight for him, and making him question how he could handle the payment of tithing? When Bro. B. dreamed at all, they were usually terrible nightmares that woke him up and left him shaken. But, last Sunday night, after he prayed to Heavenly Father long and hard for an answer to his question, he dreamed a dream. He said, if someone had been in the room with him, they would have heard him talking out loud to a voice that came to him. "Who are you?" he asked the voice. "I am the voice of Him who is on high; I live on a planet far from yours, but I am always near; your life has been spared 4 times, and that is the end of your blessings." Bro. B. asked, "Should I pay my tithing?" And the voice answered, "Yes." Then the dream vanished. He never remembers dreams, but this one is embedded into his memory, and just thinking about it makes him light as a feather!

He got a call from the son of his deceased best friend in Paris, and told him about the dream; to which the man said, "That's just a figment of your imagination!" Then, Bro. B. told him that he was going to even pay tithing, and the man shouted, "See, all they want is your money!" to which he sadly shook his head and said, "You will never understand, my friend." He related this all to Jack on Monday afternoon, while it was still fresh in his mind.

On Wednesday, we went to his apartment with white shirts and pants for him to try on, and they were all too small, until we had him try on the one temple baptismal, zip-up front suit we had. Finally, they got that zipper up over his belly (he can't suck it in) and it is going to work! The only other thing he needed was some white underwear, so we will pick some up for him. Bro. B. closed our little visit with the nicest prayer (just a simple conversation with his Heavenly Father) that I've heard in a long time; it was great.

Jack went to pick up Bro. B. on Saturday, and made the mistake of asking how he was feeling; which set him off onto a recital of all his many maladies! "I got my hair cut yesterday for my baptism, and it was hot in the salon. Then, I came outside, and caught a chill; I've been sneezing all morning, and have the sniffles and I feel terrible. Maybe I should wait and be baptized in April?" "No." said Jack, "you need to be baptized today." "Even if I'm sick?" "You will be fine." "Are you sure?" "I'm sure you'll feel better after you are baptized." "Really?" "Yes." "OK, if you say so." He came, and changed into all white clothes. We somehow got through the slowest filling of a font ever (first it was too cold, then it was steaming hot), but when the moment arrived, lo and behold, it was suddenly perfect, and we all breathed out a sigh of relief.

Bro. B. carefully followed Elder Green down into the warm water, with a big smile on his face, as he looked up into the happy faces of all his new friends. They spoke together for a moment, and then the Elder raised his right arm to the square and said those simple, but significant few words of the baptismal prayer. We all held our breath as Bro. B. didn't hold his nose as he was immersed--would he come up sputtering? No! He came up smiling wider than before, and looking back at Elder Green, he asked if he could go under again! We all laughed, as he was told that one time was enough since it was perfect. After dressing, they came back into the chapel, and Jack asked Bro. B. if he would bear his testimony to us. He told how, for a split second as he came up out of the water, he saw a symbol of two things that he really loves: birds, and to dance. He saw a bird dancing, so that is why he wanted to go under the water again. He thanked the Elders who taught him the gospel, Elders Gibbs, Green and Gunter, for making him realize that Jesus Christ is not just a pretty story to help children get to sleep at night, but that He is his Savior, and that he needed to be baptized into His church. We had some refreshments, and he told me of the 4 times in his life that he almost died, and how he knew that he had been preserved for a purpose. We drove him home, and he thanked us with a smile for his new underwear, and said he'd always remember us each time he puts them on.

We came home and crashed and slept hard, and the next day Brother Bourdicheux was confirmed a member of the church, and it is a real good feeling to have him with us. It was all worth it. Take care!

Love,

Sister Mom (Joanne) Grandma

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning

2009-03-16T17:58:00.000-07:00

Hello from France;

We are experiencing some great weather here in Angouleme and we are loving every minute of it. In the last 10 days or so, we have had only one bad day. We have been out in the yard taking care of all the work that was pretty well neglected by Sister Bouchard. The Corga family have been coming over and giving us a hand. We have been digging out all the weeds around the rose bushes, cutting the grass, and getting our little garden area ready for planting.

Two things that I have a hard time with when it comes to France is the pruning the trees and bushes and the grass. Sister Bouchard had Remi Demolombe come over and prune the bushes, roses, and small trees. He, like all other Frenchmen hack away at the bushes and trees until they look like nude sticks, but they seem to always come back in the spring. We will work on Sister Bouchard's dying hedge out front by pruning all the dead branches and then planting some new hedge bushes. The hedges last about 15 years and they get trimmed every fall to keep them square and neat.

The grass here would make an American go around the bend and off the deep end. The French let everything grow in the grass. Just as long as they plant flowers it is allowed to grow in the grass. Once the flower has died it is time to cut the grass. No such thing as getting all the weeds out and grooming your lawn to look like a carpet. The nearest thing to a carpet lawn here is a patchwork quilt.

We spent a great time with our 99-year-old sister, Madeleine Chauveau. Joanne prepared a meal and a birthday cake for us to share with her. Since we had a late meeting in Bordeaux, we brought the Elders with us and she really enjoyed the time spent. I told her that the firemen said it was against fire regulations to put 99 candles on the cake, but she blew out the nine that were on the cake. She is a great sister and has a strong testimony of the Gospel. The members called and sent flowers and even our past 1st counselor from Bordeaux came with his good wife to visit not long after we left.

We had a change in the Stake Presidency here and so we got to go to Bordeaux for Saturday and Sunday meetings. We rented a mini-bus and Joanne took the car because we had so many amis that came with us. I have a to say that Elder Kerr, our regional seventy from Scotland, has become one of my favorite speakers. I love his accent and the powerful messages he gave to all of us. He speaks with authority and power. His testimony rocks the world.

We will have a baptism the 21st of March. Our 78-year-old brother, Jean Bordicheux, is one of a kind. In the 7 months since the Elders met him, he has grown in faith and love. He has changed before our very eyes and he feels the difference in his approach to life. He is someone who thinks things through, prays for guidance and then puts the principles of the Gospel into practice to see how they work in his life. He says that all his practice has been true to the scriptures and the lessons received.

We hope to have all our amis and members there so the amis can feel the spirit and the members to realize that the missionary work is going forward. This is not a church for sissies. It is put up or shut up. I like the scripture where it says that Jesus would rather have us hot, but not lukewarm, for if we are lukewarm, He will spew us from His mouth [Rev. 3:15-16]. We need to recognize that we have made promises and it is up to us to keep the promises made. We often forget those promises and lapse into being lukewarm. It is like the coals of a fire, as long as they are in the mist of the hot burning fire they stay red hot, but once they get away from the heat of the Gospel light they go black. All we need is to be nudged back into the heat of the light of Christ and into active participation and we light up again.

We love you all and we realize that we must do all we can to help others wile we are here. There is still plenty to do on our part and with those we are working with.

Love to you all,

Elder Dad

Moments to Remember

2009-03-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

Bonjour!

I hear you are on daylight savings now, but we won't be until the end of the month (I think). I'm looking out the back window at the blooming yellow, white and pink blossomed bushes and trees, and I like it! It's trying to be spring around here, but it is still cold and cloudy, and hovering in the 40's temperature wise, so I'm not officially 'crowing' about all this yet. I made crepes in my new pan this morning, and they turned out just right. Sister Bouchard's 3 pans are all too clunky and heavy for me, so I went out and found one that I could handle, lightweight with a nice round bottom and high sides. That for breakfast, and the fact that he had a good night's sleep, got Jack's day started off right. He spent the morning helping the Corga's with their car problems, and said that Joao finally realized that his prayers for help WERE being answered by Heavenly Father. "Can He come down to earth and help you Himself?" Jack asked him. "Well, no, He doesn't do that!" "Then, how does he help you?" "He helps us by sending you and your wife to us!" blurted out Sandra! They looked at each other, and knew it was true, and that was a breakthrough moment.

I've mentioned Sister Trillaud (tree-oh) before, she is the home bound member whose heart problems have caused her body to swell up with retained water to monumental proportions. Even though she must weigh close to 400 pounds, she can get around fairly well, but cannot get too far from her oxygen tank. We visited her with the Elders to give her the sacrament, and had a testimony sharing meeting with her that was wonderful. When her turn came, she told what the gospel means to her, and how she knows she can't make it to the temple, but that it comforts her to know that she could hold a recommend. It's what Jack told her last week, and she's been pondering the idea since then, so he set up a meeting with her the following Thursday. When that day arrived, I sat in her kitchen reading while he interviewed her in the living room, and everything went smoothly until they came to tithing. It would be $54 a month, and she says everything is such a tight squeeze all ready (her oxygen unit sucks up electricity madly), she doesn't know how she could possibly do it. They went over her expenses, and it would not be easy, so he asked her to pray about it, and they will talk about it again soon. As we left, I found out that we and the Elders had been invited to lunch with her the next day, (Yikes! she doesn't need to feed us - that would be money saved right there!) and she asked if we would bring her some parsley from the store.

In the evening, on our way to genealogy, we stopped by her apt. with the nice bunch of french parsley we got for her, and I jumped out of the car to take it in. I pushed her ringer button and rehearsed a few words to dazzle her with; and heard the door unlock. I pulled on the door, but the dumb thing wouldn't open, so I kept on pulling (mumbling under my breath), all the while getting more and more frustrated. I heard her high pitched voice calling to me, but I couldn't understand any of it! "Pousser, pousser!" she shouted, as I continued to pull and pull, and I could have cried as I watched her heave herself down those stairs little by little, until we were face to face through the glass, and she opened the door, that just needed a little PUSH. (Another singular 'senior' moment in my life). I lowered my head in despair, and she lowered hers, and our foreheads met; I said, 'sorry', and she was gracious and kind and smiled that all was well.

The next day at lunch, she told us that as a young married woman with two children, she and her husband lived in Paris, and were very happy together. He was a postal worker, and all was well until he "allowed" his mother to make job changes for him, and they moved down here to where she lived. They began to argue and fight, and then they split up and were divorced. She became suicidal, once overdosing on pills and waking up a week later in a hospital, and one time leaping from the top of a 6 floor building, and only fracturing her arm! But, it was here in this area, where she came into contact with members of the church, and now at least she has the gospel. The food was too much, as usual, but it means something to her to reciprocate a little of what she feels she receives, so we ate! For dessert, she brought out 2 (two!) identical timisu cream cakes (a first for all of us), which have a thin layer of cake topped with cream, whipped firm, and sprinkled with cocoa. We each had a piece, but the other one was untouched, so she insisted that we take it and share it between us. As we cleaned up in the kitchen, Elder Gunter checked the package label, and the thing had some coffee and some alcohol listed in the ingredients . . . oops! I'm sure she had no idea about that stuff, so we had to repent that night and try to stop our misbehaving ways! When we picked up Sandra later for her daughter's eye appointment, Jack saw a busy street worker, so he got out of the car and took the 2nd timisu over to him, "For all your hard work!" The surprised man thanked him, and now has a story to tell about the moment that he was thanked for being a street sweeper.

Well, that's all for now, you take care of yourselves until we see you again.

Love, Sister Mom (Joanne)

Fun Times

2009-03-03T18:40:00.000-08:00

Bonjour to everyone -

I miss you guys, and hope you are all well, and that your days are filled with joy in your lives, and happiness for those you love. It's so good to hear from you in letters, email and the occasional phone call, and we thank you for taking time for us.

We seem to be sliding into Spring, and actually got out into the yard and (with Bro. Demolombe's help) got things more ship-shape around here. We were instructed to call him for the rose pruning ritual, and then, with a pair of clippers in his hands, he was virtually unstoppable (the French love to clip and chop and train their vegetation!). But, don't think our surroundings have been a dull brown or gray all winter long; things here stay amazingly green the whole year around.

We had a great fast Sunday this week, because Kola (the Nigerian man whom we have been sitting in the teaching of with the Elders) actually came to church with his wife, and their 3 (well-behaved) children, just like he promised he would. He and Chantal are as alike in manner and looks as two peas from the same pod, and she is very intelligent and nice. They are beginning to drink in the Gospel, and grow in their understanding of how the Book of Mormon is a second witness of Jesus Christ, and tells about God and His plan for us. They had the notion that WE were prophets because we were out and about preaching about God; so it's interesting to find out where people are in their heads, and their experiences, and to begin to teach them correct principles. She also took a giant leap forward when she was sick in bed last week, and decided to seriously read the Book of Mormon this time; and said that she felt the Spirit, and was anxious to learn more. We are feeling more at ease with one another in their home, and when he called on "our mother" to give a prayer, I had to smile about my new title. Have you ever sat through the blessing and passing part of a Sacrament meeting that only took 3 minutes from start to finish? That leaves an awful big chunk of time to fill for testimony bearing, and very few members to draw from; but, as always, with the prompting of the Spirit, things worked out just fine and the time was soon gone. Afterward, what made us happiest, was that Chantal said that she would be coming every Sunday from now on, even though her husband will be working in England for a month.

As for me, I was all ready to give my long awaited debut lesson on "I Am A Child Of God," and, once again, no one showed up for Primary. (However, that could change now that Chantal knows what church is all about!) Last week, I did have eight-year-old Clement, and we read 1Nephi 12, about the interpretation of Lehi's dream. We then spent time creating a mural of the dream in full living color, that he seemed quite pleased with. I could tell, because he kept it "straight," without his usual skull and cross-bones, or long-bodied creature-men that he likes to put on his papers. Later, after we had fed the Elders and Bro. Bourdicheux, a man wearing army fatigues walked down the hall, and the Elders recognized him as the Armenian political refugee who had hailed them on the street and asked if they were the Mormons? We invited him to stay for dessert, and the Elders showed him the First Vision video (in Russian) since he really knows nothing about the church. He's brand new in France, and is probably lonely for one thing, but he wants us to "teach" him English (he has a smattering right now), so we will gather together for that with the Elders on Thursday, and see where it goes.

Our new P-day is on Monday, and we decided to go to the newest circus to hit town because neither of us has been to one in at least 40 years! The tents are huge and brilliantly colored, and lots of people were streaming toward the entrance, probably between 6 and 700 at least. There was one center ring, with a loud band situated up high off the floor, over the opening where the performers would be coming in. The atmosphere was all dark, bright, misty, and loud, with the hum of the voices of excited children filling the air. (I was just as wide-eyed as any of them--my 2nd childhood coming on!)

It started out with 2 men in 2 separate man-sized cylinders that swung in a wide arch, over and over, and they kept their balance both inside the 24 inch wide base, and on top of it! Then came 2 Bali girls who about turned themselves inside out; it hurt to watch them! Next 3 white horses ran around the ring, along with 3 mini-ponies that were small enough to run under the horses bellies! Then came a troop of Chinese acrobats with a hoops act! Then a blond woman, working magic hanging and twirling from long lengths of material in a dazzling outfit! Next, out came the 2 elephants, with their simple tricks, and then it was intermission, where (for 5 Euros) children could get rides on their backs. We figured they made at least 200 Euros extra by getting 5 on each animal for a quick tour of the ring. The lead elephant was clever, and swept its trunk out over the front row seats as it passed by, and snatched up someones whole blob of white cotton candy and had it stuffed into its mouth in the blink of an eye.

The second half started with 6 angry looking tigers in their nice large cage! Then, the Chinese acrobats came back with a bungee jumping act from up high this time! Then in roared a tiny brightly lit train, with two box cars that were full of little dogs that were so fun to watch; and ended with 30 dogs in all! There was a comedy team of clowns that was very good and the one I really enjoyed was the quick change artists. It was a couple in fancy clothes, and she would step into flat looking hoops and he would pull up a column of material over her head, and 2 seconds later, Voila! a brand new costume! The best was last when he poured out a bucket of large pieces of sparkling gold confetti over her head, and by the time it hit the ground, she was in a sparkly golden dress to match! I guess you can tell that I loved every minute of the circus!

Take good care of yourselves!

Love, Sister Mom Joanne

What Would We Do Without People?

2009-02-14T20:37:00.000-08:00

Bonjour everyone,

It's the end our our Sunday, and we are, as usual, drained of our emotions. We never know who will come, or what kind of drama might unfold this time. Last week, the Primary was 'hit' by the unexpected arrival of 4 out-of-town children, (because of Stake visitors for Branch Conference) plus 2 from Angouleme; the room was full, and I was in shock. Thank goodness for our new Elder Gunter, from North Carolina, who saw my anguished looking face and recognized my plight. He came in with me and stood by my side, and helped get me through the situation in one piece. Funny enough, I had made extra hand outs, so there were just enough for every child to have one (talk about tender mercies)! This week, I sat alone in the Primary room, with a lesson for our 5-year-old, and/or a lesson for our 8-year-old, and nobody came until 70 minutes later. Eight year old Clement had a good excuse for being late, since his hamster had escaped, and they needed to find it, before their cats or their dog did. All we really had time for was a Book of Mormon crossword puzzle (that three weeks ago he claimed was too hard!); this time I put the jumbled up answers on the board for him, and he enjoyed it. I'm learning as I go too, you see!

It looks like we have a real live baptism coming up in April...it's our 78-year-old Monsieur Bourdichoux, who fits right into the average age range of our Branch! He really looks up to Jack, and listens to him intently, and calls him "Mon Pere Spirituel", as well as his frere, 'Monsieur Jacques'! We have loved seeing him grow and develop in the light of the gospel day after day, and he has come a long way. He had friends who told him "not to go to the Mormon church, whatever you do!", but instead of scaring him off, it made him curious, because he was impressed with the Elders he had met. So he started coming to our Family Home Evenings, and found out that we are regular people just like him, who have something he needs in his life. He watched us very closely at first for signs of our flaws, and one memorable night came quite unglued at what he took as total rudeness on the part of our upstairs friend, Chantal Walter. She was waylayed by Elder Gibbs as she entered the chapel for FHE, so he could tell her it was his last night before his transfer. Then, I motioned her over to show her the letter we'd just received from Sister Bouchard, so she took time to read it, and write down the return address. By then, JJ was calling us to order for the song and prayer, so we did that, and all the time Mr. B was sitting there, fuming at her, and we didn't know it. As Elder Green began his lesson, Mr. Bourdichoux broke in and railed at her for not saying Bonjour to him, and for completely ignoring him! He told her she was a terrible woman, and was totally rude. We were all stunned. She began to apologize, and tried to explain that it wasn't intentional; and he said that he'd NOT accept her apology because it was very intentional! Everyone took turns trying to defuse the tension, but he just seemed to get madder. Elder Gibbs told a story on himself about how 'our' perception of things can be completely different than someone else's, so we need to be open to the spirit of forgiveness. But the stubborn Mr. B wouldn't give it up, and he crossed his arms and pouted that this would be the last Monday meeting for him! Finally, Elder Green called us all to order, saying that the Spirit had fled because of the contention in the room. He took control, and went to the scriptures: 3Nephi 11:29..."he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another." V. 30..."Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away." He then said, 'We all love one another here, and we are all brothers and sisters as well, and we must behave as such.' A calmness began to return and Mr. B. seemed chagrined and we regrouped. Jack and I went into the kitchen later with Chantal, and we all blew out our collective breaths! She really impressed us by acting like a true Latter-Day-Saint should, not taking offense from a very unfair attack, and trying to make amends for any perceived slight or unhappiness that she unwittingly caused someone.

Any hard feelings were under control as we sat together in the kitchen, on this cold winter's night, dipping our croissants into our cups of hot chocolate...Yum. A humorous postscript to this story is: after Mr. B. set his baptism date, he asked the Elders if he'd be wearing something when he went down into the water? 'Oh, yes', they replied, 'You'll be all dressed in white.' 'That's good', he said, 'because I wouldn't want THAT woman to see me naked!' (Still harboring rankled feelings of being snubbed by Chantal Walter...hmmmmmm...I think he secretly likes her.

We were invited to lunch with Sister Trillaud, a home-bound member of the church, with a heart condition so bad that her lower limbs are swollen with fluid, and she has a hard time getting around. I have difficulty being 'waited' on by her, because I feel like we should be doing her bidding, and bringing her dinners; but she seems to need to render this service to the missionaries. Eating at her table is always an experience. This time she started us out with her homemade wild boar pate (looks like cold meatloaf), and those wonderful French (albino) white, floppy asparagus that she told us are grown in sand. No wonder they are colorless...but at least they are tasteless too, so even Jack could stand to down a few! Next, she made us each a 'Croque-Monsieur' (which is basically a fried ham & cheese sandwich), and then for the main course, she went all out with milk-fed veal stew, served on rice. After our course of cheeses and baguette, we were served a very nice apple (pomme) tart, that she made for us and can't even eat a piece herself. The least we can do for all that, is leave her with a clean kitchen, and so we do. This lady has had a hard life, and her health problems are monumental, but I love visiting her because of her fierce spirit, and her strong testimony. The spiritual thoughts the Elders bring are to buoy her up in her afflictions, and I believe her when she declares that she would be at church if she could. Her life inspires me to be thankful for all that I have been given, and not take it lightly.

We are doing well, except that the dampness is getting to Jack this winter, and he complains of having cold ankles. Rain, rain and more rain, is an all together different experience for us, and I can see why there is a lot of bright green moss growing everywhere you look....we better not stand still too long in one place, or it might start growing on us too!

I love life, even when it's hard, it's worth it. I love you all also.....take care!

Sister Mom (Joanne)

Never Thought

2009-02-14T20:19:00.000-08:00

Hello to all at home,

We have had a great week and feel very blessed to be here in France. The Elders are teaching a 78-year-old man, Jean Bourdicheux, and he has set his baptism date for April 6th. He has come a long way from someone who had no faith or little knowledge of Jesus, to now be one who has joy in the blessings of the Gospel and in the Atonement of Christ. He has poor health and thought that it was too late to come to Christ, but now looks forward to his meetings with the Elders and coming to church with his brothers and sisters. It is a blessing for me to pick him up in the car and talk with him to and from church. He always has questions for me and calls me his, pere spiritual, spiritual father. We have found a real brotherhood together and he no longer feels alone in the world. He loves the light of Christ and it has been a pleasure to see him make progress in his life and to watch him strive to be a good disciple of Christ.

We never in our wildest dreams knew what was to be our role in the mission field, and I never had any clue that we would end up in the same city for our entire mission. I never visioned being the branch president, but the blessings of working with faithful members of the Lord's kingdom has been a joy beyond measure. I must admit that it has not been easy and the problems have not been simple, but without the chance to be here all our time we would have not been able to make the progress that has come little by little with the help of the Spirit.

Joanne has seen the wisdom of having eight children as she now feeds the masses. Every third Sunday we have a branch meal after Sacrament meeting and all that practice has come in very handy. I help as the sous chef, chef's helper, as I peel apples for the huge pies she makes and peel carrots and potatoes for the dishes that she prepares. Each Sunday we feed the Elders and the bachelors of the branch and she takes Saturday to get something scrumptious ready. The Elders throughout the mission know all about Joanne because as the missionaries leave here they carry the news of the blessing of being in Angouleme because of Joanne's touch of home in the meals and especially the deserts she prepares. We also get lunch ready for district meeting every two weeks in Bordeaux. It is cheaper and quicker to have something for the 6 elders than to go out and get pizza or Kebabs or head to a restaurant before coming home. The touch of home cooking makes many of the missionaries want to be in the Bordeaux district.

It is a joy to see Joanne pray in French as the members and amis want to feel her spirit. She reads scriptures in French as we share spiritual thoughts with all we meet and we sing the hymns in French every chance we get. I love to try to sing the hymns in French with Joanne. I enjoy watching her as she struggles to communicate with members and amis. It has not been easy for her, but the spirit and love she shows makes up for the lack of words spoken. When Joanne gives suggestions for members and amis, it is always what is needed. I might be the mouth piece, but she is the spiritual guide in many cases and her direction come from the Lord.

I love the work and although it is hard, I know that if we had not come here, we would not know the Saints of France and would have not known so many great missionaries. District meetings and Zone Conferences give us a chance to be with the Lord's finest young brothers and sisters. Some of these missionaries come from Europe. We have seven elders and one sister in our zone that are from Europe and the other zones have more than we do. Elders from Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, and France and one sister from France. They are among the spiritual giants of the mission. The church is growing in Europe with solid saints.

We had the opportunity to go to a Zone Conference last Friday in Bordeaux and then since we are a couple missionary team and a part of the branch presidency, we stayed for the Valentine Dance at the Stake center. We had hopes that more of the branch would come as they had planned, but Alain Kaus came and we enjoyed the evening with him and the others of the stake that came. We were able to dance because the rules for couple are not the same as the Elders and the Sister Missionaries. It was great to see the members get together in good fun and we even got Alain out on the floor to dance. Alain is special and he is working on getting ready to go to the temple. When he is ready, we will have another blessing as we will be able to rent another car and go together with him to the temple in Madrid. I have loved many of you I have met back home, but when you struggle and grow with these people there is a special bond that binds us fast in the Lord that is not always the case at home.

We love you all and ask that our members and amis be in your daily prayers.

Much love,

Elder Dad

Stuff Happens

2009-02-04T22:57:00.000-08:00

Bonjour to all of you this bright February day! (January was not fast, but it's gone all ready, so it sure wasn't exactly slow either!) I'm taking one day at a time, and life here is full of funny stuff, sad stuff, weird stuff, exasperating stuff, spiritual stuff, and very memorable stuff too.

Our town was nicked by the hurricane force winds that hit the coast of France last weekend, so we stayed home and Jack brought the lawn furniture in to keep it from settling in someone else's yard. At church the next day, the heat had been knocked out by a flooded basement and it was freezing in the building. Twelve hardy souls braved the first two meetings, but several more showed up for Sacrament meeting, including a giant of a man named Kola, from Togo, who has what looks like tribal markings carved onto his smiling cheeks. He loves what he is hearing at church and from the missionaries, and says he wants to be baptized. He has a wife and 3 children, but so far they haven't come to church with him. The Corga's have an active, Portuguese speaking 5-year-old son, but they are sometimes quite late for church; then Clement (Veronique's 8 year old son, who is not yet baptized) comes sometimes, and his assignment has been to read the Book of Mormon along with me.

This past week, Jack bumped into Kola in town, and he's getting ready to move to England to take a job there. He said that he was coming to church this Sunday and bringing his family with him. Yikes! I AM the Primary. Yep, it's come to that in this branch, what with the ever-present Primary lady, 67-year-old Lucienne, deciding to divorce her husband and leave town until things cool down (is there something in the water here that makes people crazy?). At least with her, she could speak to the kids in their language, and hold them on her lap, and coo and kiss them to pieces, and call it good. The only other women here now are 78-year-old Sis. Demolombe, who can't see well, and is unsteady on her feet; and Marie-Christine, our sole Relief Society teacher, who at 56 is relatively young, but only comes when she is not depressed (and she's very depressed since Sister Bouchard left!). Then there is 38-year-old Veronique, who only seems to come to plague her ex-husband, and always manages to cause a scene, being not afraid to shout at him in the chapel in front of our investigators. Nope, as you can plainly see, I am it, and I had to gird up my loins and go figure out how to get a Primary ready for Sunday. The best place to start has got to be at the beginning, with 'I Am A Child Of God', because that is what they need to know. So, with Jack's translating help with the French manual, I worked on the lesson, and with the ideas that came to me each night.

Sunday came and in walked two little visitors from out of town, Bro. Savreaux's grandchildren, who are active in the church. We waited a bit, but no one else showed up! Unbelievable! Eva, age 7 (a helper type), and her rascally but cute little brother Julien, age 4, would have been such good role models for children untutored in church decorum. They sat expectantly in their chairs while I gathered my wits, and we finally got a fun lesson going based on the Plan of Salvation, using Sis. B's pouch-like wash cloths. We drew our faces on paper and cut them out, and taped them to the pouches; then I explained to them that our spirits (hands) had lived in the Spirit world with Heavenly Father until time to come to earth to get our body (our very own puppet-pouch-person slipped over our hand) and live and be happy until we die (leaving puppet-pouch-person behind) and return to be with Heavenly Father in our Spirit again. They were so cute, and fascinated with my Frenglaise mixture of talking with them (they helped me a lot, and we figured out stuff as we went along), plus drawing on the board is magical and a very practical and neat way to keep things moving too. We sang along to the Primary CD's and colored the blown up big pictures that illustrated the 1st verse of "I Am A Child Of God," and got through the first hour. The second hour we did collages with colored paper pieces and glue sticks (I'm afraid Julien ate half of his stick - ick!), and ended up doing floor puzzles; so now I know they need more stories and stuff like that to fill the time better, for the next group I get. But, I feel good that at least I got a dress rehearsal under my belt, how many times does that happen? Church is always an adventure and we feel absolutely drained at the end of our Sundays, but what a way to go!

Don't take life, or love, or the gospel for granted . . . Make the most of your time on earth, you'll be glad you did.

Love you much, Sister Mom (Joanne) Gran'ma

Busy

2009-02-02T22:44:00.000-08:00

Hello to all,

I have learned one thing by living in Angouleme and that is that I am not going to move to Oregon or Washington any time soon. The weather here is very similar to that of the Northwest and I have found that although it is not cold here, I can't take a continued week or more of rain. We are in a situation here where there is some flooding in the very lowest areas of the Charante because the earth is saturated. We did have 4 days of partly sunny weather and it was a welcome sight, but we have gone back into the rainy days again. It is not so much the rain but the dreary sky. I can see why people can get depressed without the sun coming out and warming the day as well as the heart.

We had the four days of the comic book festival in Angouleme and the streets are safe to travel again. Every year at this time Angouleme, the home of some of the original comic figures in France and even in Europe, puts on a 4 day festival for up and coming designers of comic book characters and future video producers. It is very well attended and the city makes a good piece of change hosting the affair. There are a few schools in Angouleme that are noted for their technology in the visual arts.

We had some changes in the branch with the departure of Sister Bouchard to her mission call in Salt Lake City and the Family Research Mission. She did so many things in the branch that it took a while to call people to replace her, but last Sunday many of these people gave strong testimony to the new callings they have and how it has helped them grow and develop. We look forward to even more progress as we put the branch on a footing so that when we leave we will not be missed and the branch will function well without us.

Joanne is having a Sunday experience since she is right now the only primary worker. We have one boy in the primary and some times some visitors, but she never knows what to expect. She tries to tailor her lessons for a wide range of situations. Joanne never knows who will show up and with her limited French she also is concerned with how she will be understood or how she will get the point across. We go over quite a bit of translations before every Sunday.

I think the hardest thing that happens is that we are limited in the words that the average Frenchman knows to express everyday ideas. There is such a difference between teaching the lessons that need to be learned before baptism because we are more conversant with the Gospel language. There are more helps for us as we use "Preach My Gospel" and the scriptures. When it comes down to trying to get across everyday ideas, we get many things lost in translation. In the U.S., we have sayings that are similar to the French, but they translate straight across, so we find ourselves at a loss for words on the simplest ideas. I also get a thought going and then have to pause often as I struggle to continue the line of thought through to its conclusion. This the reason I would like to leave the mission field with the church responsibilities in the hands of the French members. If there is a reason to build the branch, that is the main one.

We have had a very different experience in visiting our 98-year-old member. She feels that she is definitely coming to the end of her days and we are talking a great deal about how the scriptures and the leaders of the church talk about the life after this existence. The last few times with Madeline, we discussed things that she needed to think about that needed to be completed before she leaves this frail existence. We were prompted to go to her genealogy and check out what had been done. When I entered her names into the "New Family Search," we found that the married couples had all their temple work done except the sealing together of husband and wife. She was excited to know that these sealings could be done by someone else on their behalf so that these couple could have the choice to accept or reject the work done for them. We will meet with her again this week to see if there is any thing else we can do for her.

We have a hard time when there is a change in missionaries in Angouleme. We get to have these missionaries a little longer than most because of the small size of the branch and the need for them to stay and get to know and work with the members. Our last Elder stayed for 5 months and entered the mission as a greenie and just left. We have had two missionaries finish their missions here since we have been here and we get very attached to them. It is tough to wrap your arms around them and say goodbye. Joanne is famous throughout the mission for her Sunday meals for the missionaries and we have found that on district meetings it is cheaper and quicker to fix a noon meal for the district then to go out to eat with our two missionaries or the ones that come to Angouleme on an exchange before coming back to our city. The whole district looks forward to see what the treat will be. The new missionary let us know that the missionaries all over the mission know about her cooking and he said he wasn't disappointed to hear he was coming here and enjoying a good Sunday American meal.

Well, that's all from this side of the world.

Love, Elder Dad

Pictures of the New House

2009-01-24T19:58:00.000-08:00

Front View

Queen's Chair

Living Room

Kitchen

Office

Our Bedroom

Sewing & Washroom

Upstairs Bathroom

New House, Etc.

2009-01-22T19:47:00.000-08:00

Hello to one and all. It has been a while since I have got in touch with all of you, but we have been so busy with the holidays and keeping in touch with all the members and friends of the church.

The one thing about being in a leadership position is that each Sunday brings a host of new situations. We have had our teachers not show up due to work or sickness and no one knew about the situation. I have learned to improvise and many times have been inspired to start by opening my mouth and the words and the lesson comes forth. We have had many people not come for talks during sacrament meeting, especially those from out of town. I have learned to keep a talk handy at all times. Once I announced a "popcorn" meeting where the members would get up and discuss a topic given by the presiding officer who was directing. All in all, we have had some very exciting meetings with excellent testimonies and related material to inspire us to a better week ahead. There are always problems to deal with, blessings to give, calls to make, and people to set apart.

I have two great men to be my counselors and we get along like peas in a pod even though the peas are different shapes and sizes. Brother Jean-Marie Savreux (1st) is the one who is always organized and has handouts and charts to keep us on track. Patrick Humblot (2nd) knows the members and is always ready to give great advice on how to deal with each person according to past situations and his caring attitude about what he has prayed about. I keep the meeting moving so we don't get bogged down in French details that some how creep in and threaten to make the meeting last more than an hour. We are willing to give and take and when a answer isn't forth coming right away, we are willing to take time in the next week to ask for heavenly guidance. Many times during the meetings, we are speaking about the same idea or person at the same instant. What a great feeling.

We are working with a great team of Elders. Elder Green and Elder Gibbs are very hard working and spend endless hours seeking, teaching, and caring for those who they meet. We have a small branch, but many members are very willing to go out a teach with the missionaries. Their presence, experiences, and language skills help in every way.

The Elders are teaching a 78-year-old man, Jean Bordicheaux, and he is a very wonderful person. He is progressing in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he wants to do everything right and even more than is required. We had and experience with him the other night. Due to his flu and vertigo, he collapsed in his apartment. We could see him, but the doors were locked so we couldn't get in to help him. He was able to slide on his back and barely reach the door handle so we could get to him. We had called the fireman and they would have smashed a window to get to him had he not used all his force to open the door. The Elders did a two mile dash to get to him after he called them on their cell phone and Patrick and I came in the car as we were returning from our presidency meeting out of town at the 1st counselor's home. We had the four of us, 4 fireman, 4 EMTs, and 4 policemen in his small apartment. The EMTs were very helpful. After they got Jean stabilized, we stayed another half hour to feed him and get everything in order.

We are working with our Portuguese family and if it wasn't for all of the problems of life that keep coming up, we would be much further ahead. They finally left Joao's father's house because when his brother gets drunk he threatens the children. Finally he hit the children and Sandra and Joao got hold of the social services and they were placed in a hotel until an apartment can be found. We will find out tomorrow what has taken place. The members are collecting furniture for them so that when they move they will have some things. We will go to a second hand store for the rest of the essentials. Sandra has a strong testimony and as soon as all is well, we will have her husband baptise her.

Sandra is very special. She is a self starter and when she sees things to be done she pitches right in. At the branch meal last Sunday, she got right in with Joanne and helped get the salads ready and the food on the table. She is just what we need in the branch. Her eyes shine with the light of the Spirit and she wants to bear her testimony the next opportunity. Joao is progressing and should be ready to be ordained to the office of a priest before the baptism date.

We have moved into our new home. It is much bigger and we feel right at home. Our rent money will help out Sister Bouchard with her mission costs and we are getting more than our moneys worth. I will have some yard work in the spring that will help me have a good diversion. Instead of the 3 rooms and bathroom in the other place, we have 6 rooms here and two bathrooms. We have room for visitors if any of you care to come and stay. We will use the house with Sandra, Laraine and Heather when they come to visit the area.

All is well. We are healthy and enjoying the work. To give of one's self is a great rewarding part of life. We now have a blog that Chris is taking care of and if we get him more pictures you will see us in action. If anyone back home wants to read old and new letters they can go to Tour de Metcalfe, or you can get to it through philipandjaimeconnor.blogspot.com.

Well, keep looking up so you can always see where you are going.

Elder Dad

Holiday Time

2008-12-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

Hello to All,

This has been a hectic time of the year for missionary work, especially for the two of us since we are trying to take care of all the members, amis, and all the activities that the season brings. We had a good Christmas party at the branch (I will leave that to Joanne to tell), Zone Christmas program in Bordeaux, Zone Conference, cooking goodies for the people here in Angouleme, home evenings, Christmas dinner for the missionaries and others who wished to come, and last but not least the genealogy work that is going on at the branch.

I will start with the Zone Conference and the Christmas program held in Bordeaux. It is interesting how different the mission president and his wife are compared to the Merrell's. This couple decided that the missionaries in each zone should prepare and give a Christmas concert for the members and their amis, so they organized Christmas songs to sing and other musical numbers and events for the missionaries to participate in during the program. Each zone held the program in conjunction with a zone conference. We spent some time in a zone development meeting practicing the program, then we were on our own for further practices. However with all the missionary work and branch happenings, we only got in two short song practices.

The program for the three zones was well attended, however it was hard for members and amis outside of Bordeaux to attend, so Angouleme had no one there. An hour and a half drive was a little much to expect, but we did our part. We have some outstanding missionary talent in the zone and members in the Bordeaux area. The Defrancie family in Bordeaux has a father who is a lead tenor in the Bordeaux opera and the rest of the extended family plays various instruments. One of the daughters is presently at BYU. Well all went well. On the way down, we delivered some Christmas goodies to a family in the branch 24 miles south of Angouleme as we were on the way to Bordeaux. It was a short visit, but the real hope is that they know we care. The only problem was that we didn't get back home until after 11:00 PM, with permission.

The branch Christmas party and program went very well and even though 8 of the people we hoped would come either had family sickness, unexpected visitors, or in the case of one of our amis, had some tragic news about a friend so that he was not in the mood for festivities, we still had 30 people out to the program. Joanne spent a great deal of time preparing the meal and it was great.

Our family home evenings for the singles in the branch are good. Even though we don't have any young singles, we do get together with the older group and one amis, Jean Bourdicheaux. We have a lesson and with Jean there we get questions from him and this gives the members a chance to answer him. We have an activity and goodies after. This week it was a good 4 hands of Uno and a cheese feast with French bread. There was plenty of cheese left over from the Christmas meal and in no time flat the cheese was devoured and enjoyed by all. Jean, the 77-year-old amis, enjoys the friendship and has progressed in his knowledge and faith in Christ and even he can see the tremendous change in his life since he started learning and living the principles of the Gospel.

The Portuguese family, the Corgas, have so much to overcome in their move to France: the language, finding work, a place of their own, and just getting into life. Their 5-year-old has to learn a new language at school and make new friends. It is coming, but the transition is slow and painful. Both Joao and Sandra can speak fairly well in French and Sandra has a good grasp of English, so Joanne and Sandra can get along very well. Coming to church is a new experience for them and especially how to deal with the two children. We are making slow progress, but when we think of the training that went on with each of our own under learned experiences, this is hard for people new to the Church.

The Elders have a young family coming to church. Miguel has great faith and his wife Justine has started to understand better the last few weeks, especially as she attends Relief Society and participates. Miguel is from the north of France and Justine is from Cameroon in Africa and has only been here a few years. They have a sweet new born baby girl and there is a lot of love shown to this baby by their parents and the branch members.

Things are good here. We are finding that there is progress in the branch. Sister Bouchard will be leaving for her mission on Jan 4th, so we have three branch positions to fill. We have prayed and will interview two members for two of the positions, but the piano will remain silent until we can find someone to take up that position. The Elders, the members or Mom and I, with good spiritual direction, will just have to find someone to do that.

We will send a few pictures later so Chris can insert them into our blog page.

Love Elder Dad and Sister Mom

Christmas Party

2008-12-26T11:29:00.000-08:00

Bonjour to all of you, and to our friends! It's the day after Christmas here and I'm sure you all had a wonderful time with your families yesterday. At home it usually took me a while to wind down after the big day finally arrived, and that hasn't changed. The build up and the anticipation seem to keep me flying high on adrenalin enough to get through it all somehow.

Our Christmas party grew to such huge proportions in our minds (with all those who showed interest in coming) that Jack said to plan for 40 people. So, Patrick Humblot (drop the H, and cross off the T for the real pronunciation of his name!) assigned out the salads to the members (bring one for each table of 6 people!), and the "pain" (bread!) to the single men to furnish (after all what could be easier than that!). I spent most of Friday making funeral potatoes (we don't advertise that name to our elderly members!), until I had 4 large pans filled to the top with cheesy, gooey spuds.

The next morning, we went shopping for last minute things like: 6 bottles of fizzy non-alcoholic apple juice to drink along with dessert; 6 bottles of mineral water and 2 cans of the fruit flavored syrup the French serve with it; and just for insurance, a $3.50E pkg. of TEN 3-foot long baguettes that I've always wanted to buy just once, because they make it look like you're going to a party. The thing was, we weren't sure if JJ (our almost there janitor) got the message through his head about the bread, and Alain's thought process is so unorthodox we never know what we'll get from him. As Jack and I looked at each other in the store. . ."We're getting insurance baguettes!" We hid them in the trunk of the car so we wouldn't hurt their feelings if they brought some too.

Two ladies promised to come early to help me, but neither of them showed, so it was Jack and Patrick and me. We worked together well. We covered the tables with pretty red and gold paper that had a nice satin finish on it, and Jack set them with the salad plates and silverware, while I created centerpieces with greenery off the trees outside and some ribbon and red shiny bulbs. Patrick did a neat trick with the red napkins standing up in the glasses. I popped the turkey rolls in the "oven from h*ll" (which just can't wait to burn everything you dare to place into it), and hoped I guessed right on the setting this time. It's a convection oven, but it's 40-years-old and very cranky, and if you fiddle with it too much, the next time you look it will have turned itself off! That happened this time too, so after my primal scream, I turned it off and started over again, and it seemed to stabilize.

Patrick left for the half hour drive to pick up 98-year-old Madeleine, and Jack went to pick up Adele, who we got to agree to come. The members began to arrive with their salads, and they all needed space to put their creations together. Lucienne (my menace in the kitchen) came with enough salad for an army, and as I began taking out the turkey, which had baked quickly, saw something that she just couldn't abide. One dark meat turkey loaf looked too crispy for her, so she grabbed a bottle of vegetable oil and began pouring oil all over the brown little thing! I begged her to stop, and she did, with a satisfied smile, and a "that's better" look on her face. When she got busy elsewhere, I poured off the oil and patted down that little hummer until he wasn't shiny anymore. I got the potatoes heating up when Alain arrived in the kitchen with his bread. He had slaved over an automatic bread making machine, and presented me with 2 loaves of undercooked, tough, square shaped, dough blobs . . . I could only stare. What in the world was he thinking? (Well, one of them was studded with dark things, which turned out to be bits of chocolate, to make it more "special.") I took them and told him that we had baguettes to serve to people, at which he looked relieved and then took back the chocolate one!

We had a nice program, the centerpiece of which was, the DVD, "Joy to the World," telling the story of the birth of Christ, and featuring the beautiful music of the Tabernacle Choir. Some of the people we expected to come, didn't, but we had a non-member family there, as well as some inactives, and the number was 30 to the program and 28 to the dinner. Just after we served dessert, which was plenty of Buche de Noel (cream filled Christmas Logs all fancy and fine), I got a call from Heather who was wandering in a Wal-Mart and wondering if I needed something (4 orange flavored children's aspirin would be nice), so Jack had me take her (via phone) in to meet the members and they called out "Joyeaus Noel, Heather!" to her. That was neat. Then, cute little Madeleine made everybody give me a standing ovation for being a "bonne cuisiniere," and that made it all worthwhile.

Our Christmas day was party left-overs with the Elders and Alain, quiet and simple. We thought about you all, and thanks for the cards and calls and pictures you sent us, we love that kind of stuff the very best. Be safe, happy and healthy, and keep in touch . . .we love you.

Sister Mom

Paint Dry

2008-12-14T10:16:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

We are about to Christmas and everything is going full bore here in Angouleme. The branch is gearing up for the annual Christmas party and as of today, we have 30 people coming to the feast and festivities. We are working to bring others and who knows, we might have to put people on our knees to squeeze everyone in. The work is going like a house a fire. We are blessed that the two Elders that are here now will stay together for another 6 weeks. We had 9 amis at church today. I must admit that two of those are our perennial "dry Mormons," but the numbers are up. If we keep this pace up, the dream of our last branch president will come true, as he saw shoots of flowers blooming at the branch.

It was exciting to see families coming to church. One of the amis has a baptism date at the end of January and our Portuguese sister told me today that she knows the message of the restoration is true. All we need to do is get over some hurdles and break out the white clothes and fill the font with warm water. Sandra's (our Portuguese sister) husband-to-be is an inactive member of ten years, but he is back and hugged me today and said when he saw me today he was happy. He said that there is more love between the two of us than his own family. This is what it is all about. It is not about numbers, but the love of Christ being spread by the Gospel message.

I have a wonderful 2nd counselor and will have our 1st counselor next week. Both these brethren are from the branch and will be the leaders when we are gone and the branch will be able to stand on its own two feet. With two prospective priesthood holders coming into the fold, we will be growing the branch and the leadership potential. This is a great blessing the Lord has allowed us to see by asking us to stay here during our entire mission. We love these people and would feel it a blessing to spend the eternities with them in the Kingdom of God. It is a little hard to type while weeping with joy.

If we could only get more of the older couples to realize that there are blessings out in the mission field that they will never experience at home. If I could only get you retired couples to get off the couch and come out here with us, you would struggle, cry, struggle some more, and cry, but in the end the results are well worth it.

We went today to see our shy Sister Adele, and she agreed to come to the Christmas Party. Joanne was holding her hands and whispering, "oui, oui, oui" and she then said yes as she saw pure love in Joanne's face. These blessing wouldn't have come if we stayed at home. The souls of these people are precious in the sight of the Lord and He needs someone out here to reach out to them for Him.

Now for my latest French experience. You have all heard the expression, "That is as exciting as watching paint dry." Well, in France, that is an occupation. French federal highway officials do exactly that. Every year, just like at home, the lines along the highways and bye ways get dim with the weather's toll. Well, here in France the nation has not heard of the fast drying paint that we use in the States, so you will see men out on the streets and highways, painting the lines back on the roads by hand or by machine. Ah, you think it ends there, but it doesn't. A group of gaily green clothed men then set up cones along the newly painted area and sit or stand and wait until the paint is dry. The painting truck stops and waits also. One of the men, who must be the supervisor, gets down and tests the paint. When he is satisfied that all is well, he gives the signal for the cones to be taken away and the truck to paint the next 50 meters.

We came upon two men that had painted a line of about 10 meters at an intersection. The truck was blocking off one end of the line and a cone was place on the other side. One of the men must have been a new supervisor because he did not have the sophistication of the others we had seen. Instead of kneeling down and gazing at the paint and then using his index finger to test the paint, this one used his foot to test it. How barbaric can someone be? This testing paint is as important as tasting wine or cheese with a discerning palate and to use the sole of your boot is just uncouth. Only in France can the waiting for paint to dry be such a national obsession. Well, that's all for this week. Keep and enjoy your faith in Jesus. We love you all and our prayers are with you. We feel yours for us. Thank you.

Elder Dad

Our Other Anniversary

2008-12-02T09:42:00.000-08:00

Bonjour, to you all . . . you are all family, and I miss you a lot right now especially.

Last Wednesday was the anniversary of the day we went into the MTC last year (is it still called "HUMP DAY," as in "over the . . ."), man, oh man, how these last few months have galloped by. I can't even remember Summer, it went so fast. I think the big difference is the added responsibility of Jack being called as Branch President; it really takes time and effort to keep things moving along smoothly for the members. Just last Sunday, the speakers he had lined up for Sacrament meeting didn't show, so he called on his 2nd counselor, Patrick Humblot, and the two missionaries, and he finished things off, and it went well; but no one saw all the sweating and fretting that preceded the meeting! All of our little elderly sisters are doing well, and we still see them often. Sister Adele, our Sunday night visit, is deep into the Book of Mormon (2Nephi), wading through the Isaiah chapters, and underlining things for Jack to explain to her; sometimes he just says, "Uhhhhhhh," and smiles weakly at the prospect of picking apart some of those image-filled verses. He used to do most of the reading, but now she won't let him, and buts right in if he forgets. She is such a hoot. Also, from not even trying to pray aloud, she has gone to offering a short, slightly jumbled, but sweet prayer by herself (Jack used to guide her through it each time she would try, because she would get so flustered that she'd open and then close without any in-the-middle stuff!). Last week she touched us by thanking Heavenly Father that we could be a family. I was blown away when he told me all she'd said; her own family is totally fractured and absent from her life. Anyway, it's moments like this that I treasure and hold to myself, and know why we'll be here our whole mission.

Now, lest you think all is smooth sailing with us, let me tell you the rest of the story. Sister Bouchard, our 81-year-old Relief Society President, (now Jack has to find a new one in a branch of 3 active sisters) got her call to the Genealogy Library in SLC, and has to be there Jan. 5, 2009. She asked us to move into her home while she is away, so we went to our landlady, Mme. Labadie, to give her our one months notice. "Is someone coming in your place?" No. "It's in your contract to give me two months notice." French law requires one month. "Well, you used much more water than was your share, and I'll have to be paid for that!" Hmmmmmmm.

This is the first we've heard of any water restrictions in France. We wash clothes to be clean, and bedding occasionally, and even ourselves several times a week. Is this excessive? Then, when she made mention of us paying for the extra maintenance it took to get our heater to fire up right, I thought WOW, this is crazy. This is the woman who, as we sat down to take this apt. with Sister Bouchard at our side (she was the one who noticed the "for rent" ad and called us immediately to go see it), slyly said, "Now, the rent will be $600 Euros a month." We didn't catch that, but Sister B. did! "No, no, madame, the ad said it rents for $560!" and looked at her steadily until she conceded that was right, and wrote it that way. This is the woman who actually clapped her hands for joy when Jack told her he had bought a replacement toilet seat for the flimsy, thin plastic thing that had just finally broken a bolt (and didn't charge her for it). This is the woman we heard yelling at someone through our connecting wall, and him shouting at her that there NO prophets in the world now! This was shortly after Jack gave her the wonderful Easter Liahona which was all about Christ and the prophets of the restoration. Maybe she's just gonna miss us when we're gone! Well, we will see what happens next, life is a kick isn't it?

We have an appointment, so talk to you later, take care,

Love,
Sister Mom (Joanne)

Scarlet Letter

2008-11-28T18:13:00.000-08:00

Hello from Angouleme,

We are busier than ever with all the goings on at the branch. We will have our 1st coun. soon as our branch member was waiting on the Stake Presidency and visa versa. Now I have put the two parties together it should happen during our next visit.

Our Sister Bouchard received her mission call to the Genealogy Mission in Salt Lake and she is as giddy as any young person could ever be. I had the privilege to sign her acceptance letter as is required. To send the first missionary from this branch in decades is a thrill. She will be leaving on Jan. 5, 2009 and we will be moving into her house and paying her rent instead of enriching someone else. She has a big house and we will have plenty of room although we have nothing to complain about where we are now. We will probably rattle around in the new place. She is happy to have someone she can trust to take care of her place.

We are headed to Bordeaux this weekend for Stake Conference and Sunday I will drive a 9 passenger mini bus for the members. The Sat conference will be held in the stake center and on Sunday we will be in a large conference hall. It will be good to take a different route to Bordeaux tomorrow to see some new things since we don't have to be there until the early afternoon.

We have noticed that in France there is a Scarlet Letter. It is displayed on many cars here in our area and I was afraid that the old custom that was around in the colonial days was coming to France. I asked one of the members what it means to go around driving with a large red "A" pasted on the back of a car. He said that it was placed there to warn all the other drivers that these people were potentially dangerous. It signifies that they are amateurs and they have just passed their drivers test. The red "A" will stay on the back of their car for two years instead of the previous one year. We were also told that the police take strict notice of the speed and driving habits of the cars with the red". It is not bad enough for everyone to be on the lookout for you but to have the local police and the national gendarmes looking for you makes it twice as nervous for the new driver.

If the amateur driver gets a ticket during those two years they must pay the $1,500 to take the driver school all over again and go through the process once more. I think that all the young people in our country should thank their lucky stars they don't have that cost and that type of scrutiny.

Joanne is getting things ready for a family here as well as the missionaries to join with us for a thanks giving feast. The family is providing their home and the regular cheese, bread, drinks and veggies but we are bringing turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, apple pie and rice crispy squares. I'm not much help except for peeling what's needed.

Our investigator, Sandra is coming along. There is so much to do to help them put their family life in order, but the family is so willing that it will all take time. They are filling out all the necessary papers to find housing, work, and to get themselves onto the rolls of the French government. They are very anxious to get away from Joao's drinking brother. The brother, parents and our little family all live in the same house. After they get into their own place we will get them married and then finish the teaching of the basics and Sandra will be baptized. It is so great to see her want to follow the principles of Jesus even with all the problems she is facing. All their problems makes our look so small.

We love you and you are always in our prayers. Keep growing in love and especially in the light of Christ.

Hello from France

2008-11-15T10:01:00.000-08:00

Hello to all,

Every time Windows decides to change the format of something, it causes havoc with my brain because I am thrown out of the usual and into an area where there is not enough familiarity to wrap my brain around things. I have just spent the better part of two hours figuring this whole thing out so I could send a message. Up to that point, we didn't have time to spend and so no messages went out to everyone.

We have been very busy meeting with the Saints and taking care of the needs of those who are far from the chapel and have no means of keeping in regular contact. It is great to serve those who need the help because of age or sickness. It gives real meaning to the Savior's words,"When you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me."

I am very pleased to have a counselor now because he is very competent and has a desire to do the work and he is French. It is tough to know all the words and the slight differences in meanings, but to have someone by your side who does makes all the difference in the world. Patrick Humblot is the exact meaning of inspiration.

We are getting ready for our genealogy activity at the branch today and it will be great to introduce the members to the wealth of help that comes with the new program of the church in genealogy. I have worked with New Family Search, and the added new information that is already in the data base is amazing. As you merge duplicates, it adds the new information of others to your line and expands your genealogy family tree most of the time. Since this situation has happened, I have been in contact with others who now see the connections to us and our family.

The members here are excited to have the library back on line. After six months of working, it is exciting for me also. We are now opening up the genealogy library on Thursday afternoon and evening. Joanne and I will take the afternoon session and Patrick will handle the evening session. He has the genealogy bug the way I do. We will use this Internet connection and advertise the genealogy sessions to the people in the city to see what contacts we can make. The Elders have made contact with a single woman from Ethiopia and she is planning to be baptized within a week or two. It is hard to get the final interview process done since we are the furthest city from anywhere. Almost makes you feel you are in Cokeville. Our stake president is 5 hours away and so is the mission home. We are felling like we are out in the frontier.

Joanne and I are still meeting with the Corga family and they are fighting so many problems. No job, having to go back to Portugal to have money sent here, dealing with situations that are foreign to them and not having their own home, makes life pretty tough. We can empathize with them 100%. They are working hard on their stop smoking program, but with others smoking where they live makes it extra hard on them. They are a neat young family that wants the best for their children and they want to be part of the Gospel plan as they see it an advantage to their lives and the lives of their two children.

We are getting ready for stake conference at the end of the month and we will rent a mini-bus to get everyone there for the Sunday session. It will be great for everyone to be there together and to come back having attended as a whole branch, instead of just those who could drive their own cars. We will come back more unified for the experience. The conference will be held in an assembly hall in Bordeaux so there will be enough seats for everyone. The stake center in Bordeaux is not large enough to accommodate this large and spread out stake.

We hope and pray for all of you back home. We are planning many activities for the Christmas holidays here. It seems strange to realize that this will be our second Christmas away from all of you.

Take care and know that we love you all very much.

Our Progress

2008-11-04T22:37:00.000-08:00

Hello to all,

We have finally made some progress on the Internet connection at the chapel and we now have the link to the church genealogy site. We are back on line and we now can hold our long over due Saturday session and prepare the member and friends on the genealogy program of the church. Our branch 2nd counselor, who is as big a genealogy bug as I am, will be the facilitator. He almost danced a gig today when I told him that everything is connected and ready to go.

We had two church officials come today and while one was doing a full inventory, the other was helping get us connected. He was able to use his laptop and information from the French church headquarters in Thoriy to find that one of the connector boxes had gone dead. He carries spare parts in the van and in no time had the Internet up and running. All the frustration over the last 6 months went down the drain and happiness was the end result.

Our Portuguese family is making some strides. Juan is still looking for work, but with the help of one of our members, he is now signed up and is waiting for the call to go to work. But their friend in Portugal, who was taking care of transferring their mail to France, up and died suddenly last week and their bank account couldn't be accessed from France. Sandra prayed all Monday after not making connections with anyone in Portugal. This morning she got a call from a friend and that friend was able to forward her mail and access the bank. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

We had a great Sunday School lesson with them last Sunday about the Plan of Salvation. This sister drinks in the Gospel as if she was the most thirsty person on earth. Her eyes never leave you as you unfold the scriptures and truths of the plan of Heavenly Father. Today as we took a coffee substitute to her home, she said that because of the loss of her father recently and her husbands brothers all the information made sense; especially the part that all mankind will get to hear the Father's Plan here or in the life to come and will make a choice on whether to accept or reject the commandments of Christ so that when the judgement comes we will all be on equal footing.

They still need to find a place of their own so they can be a family, instead of sharing a house with so many others and having all the distractions that are going on, but as we take the challenges one at a time. With the prayers of all and the help of our Heavenly Father, all will get done.

We had a hard time saying good bye to Elder Giles. He said one day that he cried twice on his mission. Once before he boarded the plane after saying good bye to his mother and once in his first city in France when he had no idea what anyone was saying because they were all speaking so fast. Well, he cried once more as we hugged and I said my farewell to him. He sobbed and said he didn't want to leave. I told him he had to take the next step in his life and that this experience would be a great help to him. I told him that I loved him and that he needed to go home to progress further. I wept also because he was raised without a father and he and I bonded well together. I said to him just before I released him, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

We have sent two good missionaries home from here and it is rough to spend 6 months with them and then to let them go home. It is different when they continue on their missions because we see them again at Zone Conferences and other situations, but when we send them home it gets tough.

Our new Elder is Elder Green. We have known him before and once he said that he missed peanut butter. The next time we got together we bought him some good American peanut butter and he was in heaven. We will buy him another jar tomorrow and give it to him as a welcoming gift.

Love you all from Angouleme,

Elder Dad & Sister Mom

Time Flies

2008-10-29T22:24:00.000-07:00

We are well into another week and time stands still for no man. We have had a good week. Our amis at church jumped to 7 this week and with people coming to visit, we nearly doubled the branch numbers. It was great to have two investigator classes. The Elders are teaching two amis in English and Brother Mazaleyrat and I worked with new amis from Portugal. We sure could have used Phil and Jaime on that day. They speak pretty good French and with the first vision in Portuguese, we did alright.

The Elders were in town, a walking mall, and were contacting the people who were strolling through the area. They contacted a family of 4 and the husband said that he was a member of the church and was baptized in his home land of Portugal 20 years ago. He is inactive and his
wife is not a member.

Joanne and I went to visit them after two visits by the Elders. Sandra, the non member said that when Joanne and I showed up at their door, she knew that she should let us in. She had not let the Elders in the two times before. We were able to teach her the restoration of the church and they said they would come to church. They have a 4-year-old boy who is having trouble in school because he doesn't speak French and a 16-month-old daughter. Juan, the father, is looking for work and right now they are living with the father, mother, and brother. Things are a little cramped with all of them. They came to church on the 3rd Sunday of the month, which is our branch meal together. It was a good thing that Joanne over cooks for the meal because that made enough food for everyone. The meal also helped them be at ease with the members and Alain Kause got with Juan to help him with some job agencies in town.

The next time we went to the house Juan's sister was there. We taught them a little about the plan of salvation and again invited them to church. Juan, Sandra, and their kids came and so did the sister and her young 3-year-old boy. We went back on Tuesday and Sandra said she felt comfortable at church and could feel a special spirit there. We were able to teach them about the Holy Ghost at that time since she had recognized the feeling. I made some of my banana bread and we took it with us. They enjoyed it and we continued with the plan of salvation because Juan told us about the death of two of his brothers.

Sandra is a choice person. If we can get them settled into a job and into a place of their own , we will be able to make better progress with them. Sandra speaks very good English, French, and, of course, Portuguese. She has a sweet spirit and both Juan and Sandra treat their children in a loving way. Too many French people just shout at their children.

The Elders are teaching a brother from Nigeria and a sister from Ethiopia. Our sister from Ethiopia is progressing in her understanding of the Gospel. Both Bright (Nigeria) and Unsete (Ethiopian) speak better English than French, so they are taught in Sunday school in English. If this keeps up we will have an real international setting.

It looks like we might move to a house if all goes well. Our 81-year-old Relief Society President has put her papers in for the genealogy mission in SLC. If she is called, we will move into her home and pay her the rent we now pay for our small place here. The house has much more room and many of the comforts of home.

I had the opportunity to interview our only teenage girl last week for a trip to Spain and a week stay with the rest of the Stake's young people at the temple complex in Madrid. She will have the chance to meet many others of her age, do baptismal work, study the scriptures with the youth and the leaders and see the sights of Madrid. I am anxious to hear her remarks on her return.

We are slowly getting things in order in the branch. The lost and found work goes on and we are paring down the numbers as we find the members in other areas of France and the world. We have had members move not only out of the province, but out of the country. In one way or another, we are finding out where they are and sending their membership records where they belong. I feel like a sleuth when I use all the avenues at my disposal, but the greatest way is through prayer. One way or another, we are led to find out where these members are.

Well keep smiling and doing your best.

Love Elder Dad

Plunging for Converts

2008-10-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

Bonjour mes freres et soeurs (my brothers and sisters)--I can picture you all in my mind today, and I hope everything is "ca va" (going well) in each of your lives.

We are having some good things going for us to push out the bad. The family Soumahoro, from Africa, are the hard luck folks here. They've been members for a few years and were once active, but now are not. We visit them occasionally to keep in touch, and try to connect with Abdel, their 16 year old son. He plays soccer all his waking hours, and has some natural talent for the game (we watched him one Sat.), and his family seems to think he will become a famous professional someday and they will all be millionaires. The mother, Assa, is a business woman, and has her fingers in a lot of pies, trying to keep things afloat. The dad was a strong, vibrant man, until hit by a terrible illness that has left him crippled and so weak he can hardly walk. The last time we stopped by to see them, I could hardly watch as he made his torturous way down a flight of stairs just to shake our hands, smiling all the way.

Abdel, the nicest, and most polite boy I've met here, wasn't home. His other sibling, his 9 yr.old sister, has an affliction that just makes you want to cry. She has a facial tumor that covers much of her head and neck, and seems bigger to me this time. She's been seen by doctors in Paris, but I think they are stumped by its massiveness, and have given up on her. Assa sat us down and served us orange juice and Pringles, and introduced us to her older, married daughter, who has moved here from Paris to start a Coiffure shop for African women with her mother. She was very nice, and Jack asked her if she'd like to hear about the church, and she said yes, but after they got the business up and running in Oct. Then, when Jack informed them that there was a new branch president, and it was him, they applauded! Their faces just beamed, and they congratulated him, and as we departed Assa called out, "Bless you President, and we will be coming to church this Sunday!" (I thought for sure we could take that declaration to the bank, but they didn't come.)

Anyway, my undaunted husband went by the shop to see if he could help, they were in the painting stage then, but they had all the help they needed. Then last Sat., opening day, we dropped by again, and it was fun to see the women in full, bright native dress walking between the '2' shops they have there! The other is just across the street, kitty corner, and sells food mostly; this was the first we'd heard of it. Jack just ran in to ask how everything was, and there was a big problem with the plumbing--the toilet there has not been working, so now they needed a plumber. They hated the expense of that, but now that the shop was up and going, this must be fixed. Jack told them he knew a plumber in our branch, and promised to see about it. "Thank you, President!"

On our way home, he said, "I think I need to try plunging it; maybe that's all it needs." So, we stopped at Brico Depot and bought a wimpy looking plunger for the job (cross your fingers), and today was the day. We dressed in our grubbies (apparently I may have to hold his legs, or something!), and armed with a bucket and the plunger we headed out. Assa's daughter took us back to the toilet, a dingy old thing with the tank so high up on the side wall that Jack had to climb a ladder to get to it. What he found there was amazing--someone had put a plastic device with blue dye into the tank, and it had slipped out of place and gotten tightly trapped in the working parts, and gummed things up. He removed it, and turned the water back on, and VOILA!, flush, flush, & more flush, they have a working toilet again.

She was so happy, and wondered if he could look at the toilet in the other store, because it wasn't working either. So, escorted by a family member, we entered the little market, and were taken back to the problem area. The toilet here was in a sort of cupboard, with a cylinder style tank, on the wall also. The dapper man who brought us there was bemoaning the time he had spent pumping away with the little plunger he had. Then, Jack stepped up to bat, (so to speak), and began plunging away for all he was worth. He turned on the water, and to our friend's amazement, the water went down the hole like it should! The man beamed from ear to ear, and shook both our hands, and it was great to see the respectful look in his eyes and gratitude he had for that simple act of service. Can toilet plunging lead to bigger and better things?

I think I've written a book! Sorry I got carried away, but time to go :) !

Love, Sister Mom Joanne, Mam

Better Late Than Never

2008-10-14T21:50:00.000-07:00

Hello to all,

I apologize for not getting on the stick and writing especially after complaining that I don't hear from all of you enough. We have been very busy with all the things there are to do here in the branch and with the missionary work on top of that it all compounds into full days and weeks. I have been busy trying to learn all the terms and forms that have to be filled out and getting the branch membership list put in order. The branch membership has changed over the years due to the shift in factories that have left the region. It seems that no one until now has tried to track down the total membership. Joanne and I have have used almost every method known to us to get the lost sheep found.

We have tracked many down through the white pages on the Internet. If we get more than one phone number for the same name, I then call each number and say that I am from the U.S. and am looking for so-and-so. Many times I get a polite no when I add the necessary details to the search, but after many calls, I am successful. The members have gone throughout the country and I am able to track them because France is broken down into numbered departments. If I don't find them locally, I can then branch out into the surrounding area. I have found some as far away as 500 miles. Some of the members have moved out of the country. With those, I have sent referrals to the countries through the missions located there. Sometimes when I call related last names and let them know I am interested in contact so-and-so, I get an enthusiastic response about the person being a mother-in-law or some other relative and I then get their address and telephone number. Of the total 154 members on the original list we have paired it down to 80 that are still in the branch boundaries. This has made a major difference on our percentages for visiting and home teaching and attendance at meetings.

I am happy to say that I don't feel like a direct descendant of Aaron, the brother of Moses, anymore. I now have one of my counselors and hope to have the other soon. Patrick Humblot is the new counselor and he is a great person. His son who lives in Bordeaux has told me that he has been invigorated and is very willing and eager to serve. Patrick has been in the branch a long time and his insight and knowledge about the members will be a great help. He and his family were devastated when his youngest son was killed while serving the NATO forces in Bosnia. The event caused his wife to have a nervous breakdown and a family breakup ensued after years of struggle. It has taken its toll on the family. There is a son who is active in the church in Bordeaux and a daughter in Brieve. Both of these cities are in our stake but they are 2 hours away.

Patrick has a great sense of humor and we get along like brothers. He has the same passion I do for genealogy and we have spent time getting to know the new church genealogy program. He is 57 years old and works for a group that does dental crowns, false teeth and the like. He has done this all his life and with his fine hands he is well suited for the work.

His youngest child, a daughter lives in Angouleme and is slowly coming back into activity. I hope that knowing that her father is a leadership role will give her a greater reason to come back into the fold. Florianne, the daughter, is the youngest of the family and was shocked when her brother was killed. She was just in her early teens when this took place and it has taken her time to get her back on her feet.

Last week, Patrick had a granddaughter baptized and Florianne attended the baptism and stayed with her sister in Brieve to attend Sunday services. The missionary work is progressing with a number of people fully working with the Elders in the missionary discussions. We have two investigators, but we are at the beginning of the teaching process. We are working very diligently with less active members who are working their way back.

In our travels this month we have asked when the grape harvest will be and found that last week it was in full swing. We thought there would be a large number of people in the vineyards, but much to our surprise the greatest percentage of the work is now done by machine. We got to see a couple of these machines up close and personal. They have two sides that surround the gape vines and then, with a relatively hard rubber flap on both sides, the machine hits both sides of the row of grape vines and shakes the grapes off. The clumps of grapes drops to the floor of the machine on each side and is carried by conveyor belt to the top of the machine to a container on each side. When the containers are full, the grapes are unloaded into trailer and the harvester continues on.

The grapes are then hauled to the farmer's distillery where the wine or Cognac process takes place. As we passed the villages we could smell the fermentation process taking place. This country could be self sufficient in food because of the good soil and climate. If they took the vineyards and put them into crops that could be eaten, the country would be able to feed more than the people of France. You would be shocked at the amount of ground is taken up with the vineyards all over the country.

Well, take care all and keep your chin up.

Elder Dad

Time Flies

2008-09-23T21:29:00.000-07:00

It is amazing to me how time flies. We have a good routine and many things that come up to fill in the time that remains. I enjoy visiting members who have a difficult time getting out. It gives them contact with the church and gives them a chance to sing the songs of the saints and have the sacrament and study with us. It is very gratifying to go to the rest home and see Sister Louise hang on to Joanne. She hugs Joanne with all her might and then gives her the biggest kiss on the cheek. She enjoys the visits so much she won't let go of Joanne's hand the whole hour or so we spend with her. I also have learned to appreciate how much the French Saints revere the title of Bishop or Branch President. They have a great deal of respect for the priesthood authority. I feel very uneasy when I am called "President," as I would just like to be brother instead, but I know that the members here have so much faith in their leadership that it humbles me each time they refer to me as their branch president.

I am still without counselors, but I hope that will be taken care of this Sunday when the Stake President comes with the Mission president and his wife. Then it will be easier to function with good brethren with me. Although we are small in numbers, the members have the strongest faith in the Lord Jesus Christ I have ever seen.

We are teaching a number of people and hope that they will continue to progress. Joanne and I have been out tracting and even though we have not met anyone willing to hear the message, we have left everyone with a pleasant felling and have not tried to put anyone on the defensive. We have a couple of neighborhoods we would like to do, so our efforts will continue as we have the time. We are teaching a daughter of some members in the North. Sophora has a 4-year-old son and has been to church once. We will have the 2nd lesson this week. We are also teaching a young woman who is a friend of one of the members.

One thing that is different in France is the drivers and the way they get about. Those who are on foot cause all kinds of problems due to their indecision. I have learned to stop whenever I see one, but that is not always evident as they come out from no where. Bikes are the next interesting situation. Most of the bike riders are dressed as if they are entering the Tour de France. The roads are small enough that one rider on the side of the road can hold up traffic pretty good. The motor bikes range from the ones without much power to loud dirt bikes. The low powered contraptions have to be started by pedaling and then the rider puts the small engine on the front wheel and it starts up and hits a top speed of 35mph. When going up a hill, the driver has to pedal to get it to the top or it would stall. The dirt bikes are allowed on the road here and their noise level can scare you out of your wits as they go by. All bikes don't follow the same rules as the rest of us, as they zoom in and out of traffic to get out in front. The large motor cycles never go the speed limit and will pass you with just the slightest amount of room. Cars come in all sizes, from the two seaters to just about the largest we have at home. All drivers want their side of the road and some of yours. No one here can say that Americans are obsessed with cars as even in the projects here in France there are some of the fanciest cars in the parking lots. Truck are something else. The 18 wheelers back home could never negotiate the sharp corners and tight spaces. The Europeans have built trucks that will handle the toughest driving situations. They have a better turning ratio and the cabs are much smaller to start the tight turns.

It is all an experience I will never forget and if you come to Europe one must be a master of the parallel parking. If not you might as well stay home. Getting use to the fact that the guy on the left has the right away has been a challenge and it is good that my copilot, Joanne is always on the look out.

Well, keep on smiling and remember that a good sense of humor and a good laugh will keep you in good health.

Elder Dad

I'll Have Bacon With That!

2008-09-23T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hi and bonjour to all of you this morning. We were up at six to pray for the success of the Toulouse Mission, and to read another two chapters of the Book of Mormon (in French), on this P-day. Then, to tell the truth, being still tired, we went back to bed since all of that was accomplished before 7 a.m., and it was still black outside. We don't tell the Elders about all the extra perks available to senior couples, as they seem to think we have it much easier than they do as it is. And it is true actually, because we have a lot of freedom to make decisions and go with the flow, where they have rules and regulations to follow to keep the spirit and do the work. Anyway, we are up and at it after our nap, with Jack fixing French toast, and me mulling over Isaiah's words in 2Nephi. If you think Isaiah is difficult to figure out in English, you would not believe how hard the French translators worked to get his meaning across, while dealing with his wild word imagery. We keep the English scriptures handy to be able to understand what he is saying, and are so glad to have them.

We went to visit a woman who has had contact with the church over the years, but is not a member. She has come into our path because her sister wants the lessons, and is living with her right now. Christelle has 3 little children, two divorces, and is a hard worker, trying to keep things together; but she hurt her back, and is really in bad shape. She asked a member for a blessing, but he had no oil, so he came to Jack and asked him to do it for her. The room was full of smoke as we entered (with the Elders also), and as we sat, the first thing Jack asked her was if she had faith in Jesus Christ as her Savior. She looked at him straight, and admitted that she didn't really because she had a hard time believing in Mary's virgin birth. So he taught her about Heavenly Father and His son for several minutes, and I got the feeling that she was sincerely trying to listen and learn. We made a date to return a few days later, and when we did we found her totally down. She'd tried getting something done, and had only made things worse. She was slumped on the couch, unwilling or unable to move or even look up, as Jack gingerly sat down beside her. She answered some questions dully, with others in the room doing most of the talking, and so we left her with a prayer, wondering what we could do to help?

Just as we were pulling out of this vast "projects" apartment complex, and I was rolling up my window, I saw from the corner of my eye, "the egg," as it flashed by and hit the right side mirror, and splattered across the windshield and fender. The little brown missile was well placed, and just missed the open window, which would have been lots of fun for all! We were a bit stunned, and Jack automatically pressed on the brakes, but there was no sign of the pitcher. Jack optimistically thought maybe we just got in the way of some kids playing around, but I'm having a hard time with that idea. Anyway, after we dropped off the Elders, he said let's take them DINNER tonight, so we rushed home to do it. He peeled a big pot full of potatoes to boil, and I cooked hamburger and gravy and those fast Toffee bars, and with everything mashed and baked (in proper order), along with a green salad, we were back by 6 p.m. The surprise on their faces when we returned bearing food was priceless; plus we got a surprise too, of going into a smoke filled room of visitors for Christelle, and being stared at as if we had flown in from Mars. It's the Mormons! And they're bringing food! We had a spy there, and he later reported that they ALL ate and wanted to know how I made the gravy! No Campbell soup here in France to help you out; I'll tell if they take the lessons.

Well, I guess that's it for me now, I hope you all are well and happy.

Much love, Sister Mom Joanne G' ma

Hello

2008-09-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hello to all of you this new day.

Seems to me like I've been the silent partner lately, and it's true, mainly because of the timing involved in our coming and goings. We worked very hard to prepare for our 'Porte Ouverte', as a part of the national 'open house' day last Saturday. Jack took a picture of the chapel, showing the spire, with the gate open symbolically, for the fliers he and a member created. They ran off 1400 invitations: a few were taken by members to give out, the Elders took some to pass out while contacting, but most were taken by Jack and Jean-Jacque (JJ), and dropped into mailboxes in neighborhoods all around town. Jack and JJ (who is a little nuts anyway), walked their legs off for three days in a row, while I was in the church working on creating posters for the rooms. Each room was to be manned by a member who would explain an aspect of the gospel, such as: the family, temples, genealogy, the plan of salvation, and the restoration. Last week we helped a single dad by watching his 12-year-old daughter for a day, and she helped me by drawing her version of the 'plan de salut' on 3 large pieces of paper. I thought it was so good that we set up a special display just for her with her photo along with it. Anyway, things looked great, and we were all ready for a crowd with refreshments set out (I baked another sweet treat at 10 o'clock the night before just to be sure we had enough!), and our members all in place. We waited, and waited, and waited some more, and not one person came to visit us, to say hi, to say boo, nothing--nobody. At 2 p.m. the overhead clouds let loose a torrent of rain, and the very intense Richard Humblot was sure it was the wrath of God on the city of Angouleme; but President Metcalfe (that's Prey-zee-daun in French) set him straight, "No, Richard, it's just rain, like always." We were all disappointed, but not down and out. Everyone sat together in the chapel to discuss what we could have done better, and how to be more effective next year, and we stuffed ourselves with lemon bars, and left with smiles all around.

We went to see an inactive member who is confined to her bed mainly because of obesity. I frankly was not looking forward to this because of things I'd heard and because of preconceived ideas, but after meeting her, that all changed. Bernadette Petite (an unfortunate name!) has a life that consists of sitting propped up in a double-sized hospital bed, with no way to get out without help. In spite of the hand she's been dealt in life, she has an outgoing personality, a great smile, and seems to be a people magnet (what with folks popping in to see her left and right while we were there). She used to come to church about 10 years ago, but someone was so mean to her that she went inactive. We mentioned the names of some of the faithful, longtime members we know, and she remembered them fondly. She testified of her strong belief in and love for her Savior, Jesus Christ, and feels that she is worthy to receive the sacrament. Gladys, her older sister (not a member), lives with Bernadette and her husband and helps him care for her (I think hubby gets money from the state for her home care and keeping). Gladys is overweight and wracked with arthritis pain and has diabetes like her sister, but is at her beck and call without a murmur. Their relationship to one another is special, and Gladys seems to always be by her side. I really like them both, and their interaction with one another as they talk about life, and interject thoughts, and finish each others sentences. While we were there, Gladys suddenly got up to get their blood sampling kit. She pricked her sister's finger and read the results and got a needle ready, and bared a large portion of Bernadette's stomach. Jack hid his head, which made them both laugh because it doesn't hurt at all, they claimed, as Gladys plunged it in deep! Apparently the nerves there were cut in some long ago surgery; but he was only trying to preserve her modesty and dignity, which they seem to think is unnecessary at this late date! So, the Petite's, as we call them, are now on our rounds, and I look forward to our visits with them.

Well, my last attempt at an e-mail flew into outer space because (Jack sez) I take too long writing them, so I'm trying to hurry, but it's hard for me! Just don't forget that we love you all and think of you often. Thanks for caring.

Love, Sister Mom - Joanne - G'ma

Drivers

2008-09-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

As you might or might not know, as of last last Sunday I was released as 2nd counselor of the Angouleme Branch and sustained a few minutes later as the Branch President. I did not think the call was going to take place until the end of the month, so I didn't have time to get ready for it--which was probably a good thing. Stress is not a good thing. The prior Branch President had to come from 2 1/2 hours away each Saturday to handle the affairs of the branch. He and his wife were called for 6 months and they served 15. The 1st counselor is from Bordeaux and he and his wife have been coming to Angouleme for 33 months every Sunday. Brodeaux is an hour and a half south from Angouleme. I have had the privilege to work with these two men from the time we arrived and there are no finer members of the church than these two. Their unselfish service and the love that developed between us as we served together will last into the eternities.

I have called two counselors from the branch and we will find out how their interviews go when the Stake President comes at the end of the month. These two men have become close friends of mine. When I was asked to serve, their names were cemented into my mind by the Holy Ghost. I think that the 1st counselor in the stake presidency was surprised that I was already giving him names, but I had plenty of time to petition our Father in Heaven about the subject.

This will be a challenge, but we are looking forward to serve these great members and build the branch. I am sure the work will move along and we will progress with the help of God. This has been a great growing period in our lives and I would not trade it for all the world.

We would like to solicit for your prayers this Saturday when we have our open house. It is actually a national day and our activities chairman came up with the idea. We are looking forward to having some good success. Our activities chairman has made some classy invitations and we and the members will be putting them in the mail boxes in their local neighborhoods and we are saturating the neighborhood around the chapel. The missionaries are also handing them out as they make contacts throughout the city. We have 5 rooms set up for displays and we will have members and missionaries present to give 3 to 5 minute presentations on the: family, temples, the Plan of salvation, genealogy, and the restoration of the church. We will have church music playing in the chapel and refreshments in the relief society room.

We are grateful for your support and prayers.

Love Elder Dad

News from Angouleme

2008-09-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

Good morning everyone,

We just got home from church and I have some news to give to you. Elder Dad was released from being 2nd counselor in the Branch here, and was then sustained as the new Branch President. It has been a wonderful experience to be associated with the former Pres. and his wife, and the former 1st counselor and his wife, both of whom came every Sunday from their home wards, quite a distance away. In the mission field the bonds of friendship and love can grow very strong and lasting, and we will miss these good people very much. As for President Metcalfe, he is feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment, but truly loves the people here, and wants to do the job well. In his testimony, he said that the young Elders can be sent from city to town, all around the whole Toulouse mission: Nice, Bordeaux, Marseille, Corsica, etc.; but we will be staying in Angouleme, the best city of all. We are happy here, there is hope here, and a reason we were sent here! So, I thought you would like to know the latest, up-to-date news; all is well with us, hope you are doing well too.

Lots of Love to you all, President and Soeur Metcalfe :)

This Week

2008-09-03T17:59:00.000-07:00

We have been very busy these last couple of weeks as we are getting ready for the Aungouleme chapel open house. The 13th of Sept is a national day in France for open house of business, homes and churches. Our activities chairman came up with the idea. Joanne is using her skills in the area of drawing to get all the proper pictures with good drawings and headings. We are having the 4 rooms set aside for different themes: Families are Forever and the video on temples; Plan of Salvation; Genealogy; and The Restoration of the Gospel. The missionaries will take the Plan of Salvation and the Restoration. The 1st counselor and his wife, a great couple, will take the Family room and Patrick Humblot will handle Genealogy. We will have a three to five minute presentation in each room with the chapel being used for questions and soft music. We will have a room for refreshments and hopefully we can get some interest going. We are distributing 900 fliers in the general neighborhood of the church and the missionaries are going to hand out additional fliers as they make contacts the week before the open house.

We have a referral from one of the members who we are teaching. Angelique has come to church twice and was taught the restoration lesson after church. Anyone who can sit through 3 hours of church and still want to be taught more has got to have the spirit. We are still waiting for Gilda, the almost blind lady, to come back from vacation at the end of the week.

The rest of the work is concentrated on our rest homes sisters, inactive members, and the few contacts we make as we go about town. Carole Bruce, our student from Togo went off to Canada to school and we are trying to get a hold of the Quebec Mission to get a hold of her. Carole gave us the names of her parents in Togo and the name and address of her brother in Tour, France. I am waiting for the mission office to get a hold of me so I can send the referrals.

Two things have struck me since we came to France and that is the civility of the insects and the different methods of transportation. The insects here have been trained over the centuries to stay out of the homes of potential victims, humans. We can leave the doors and windows open here and even though there are no screens on anything here, the bugs stay mainly outside. They might venture in, but for the most part they go right back outside. They are not like our insects back home. We even have mosquitoes that have not attacked Joanne, whereas in Wyoming she would have been picked up and carried off the minute she set foot outside. The insects here are not attracted by the lights inside the house at night. They have been well trained to stay in bed after the sun goes down.

As for the methods of transportation, they vary from feet to the fancy cars. After the normal feet, the next method is skate boards. Quite a few young people use skate boards to get around. Angouleme is a little tough since it is up hill until you get to the center of the city. Down hill will be much appreciated. Bikes are very popular. Most bikers wear head gear and, when it is for recreation, most of the men are decked out in the best Tour de France outfits. Mountain bikes are popular here. Then comes the moped: this is a heavy bike (like the old balloon tire bikes) with a little motor that fits over the front wheel. Once you pedal and get some speed, your maximum speed will be about 15 mph, but on any uphill climb you would have to help the motor and pedal. Motorbikes come next with a speed of about 35mph. From here on in the two wheeled types get very noisy because there are no laws against certain decibel levels. Scooters for one and two person come next. Less noisy and better to get around on because they have a rack on the back for caring your goods. Motorcycles are very prevalent and can get up to very fast speeds and are extremely loud with the lack of exhaust pipe system to cut down the noise. The two wheeled types of transportation don't follow the rules of the road. They go in and out of traffic at will and try every which way to pass you. They will go so far as to drive up on cement dividers to shoot past the slower traffic. On the freeways, they have no regard for the speed limit. If you see them coming in your rear view mirror and move over to give them even a little space to zoom by you, after they pass the driver of the motorcycle will lower his right leg a little off the pedal as a way to say, thanks. If you don't see them in time in your mirrors, they will make you jump out of your skin because they make so much noise they will startle you.

The cars come in all shapes and sizes. There are the two-seaters, like the Smart Cars that are now selling in the U.S. Smart Cars are not the only two-seaters around. Many other companies make them, but you won't see them in your local showrooms because they don't meet U.S. emission standards. You hear a lot of criticism by Europe of the U.S. not accepting the world wide treaty on industrial emission standards, but if the European car makers had to meet just our national standards for cars, we would be the only ones selling car along with the Japanese and Koreans. Don't let anyone tell you that it is only people in the U.S. who love their cars. The popular expensive cars are seen all over Angouleme, even in the apartment buildings we call the projects.

There are many more car makers in Europe than back home and I sometimes wonder how they all make it. Many can't sell in the U.S. because they don't meet our pollution standards. There are no emission control standards like many states have at home. Once a year tests here in France would put half the cars off the roads.

Well with all the cars on the roads here, it is a wonder that they get around with the huge gas tax that puts the cost of a gallon of gas at about $7.50. The schools for learning how to drive are about $1,500 a session and if you fail the drivers test you must start all over again at the same price.

Well keep the faith and soyez sage, be wise.

Love Elder Dad

The Heat Is On

2008-08-11T16:39:00.000-07:00

The summer has arrived and the heat has come on and we are grateful that we were able to get the air conditioner in the car fixed or we would have melted by now. There is always humidity in the air and with the heat getting into the 90’s it makes it somewhat harder to handle. The nights are still cool enough to sleep and so we feel good about that.

The price of gas has fluctuated up and down as it does in the States but it has come down about 45 cents a gallon, but it is still $7.50 a gallon. Gas is our biggest expense here since we travel around the area seeing members and going to Bordeaux quite often for missionary meetings. We are headed to Toulouse next week to go through the library of pictures and posters in the mission office because we have an open house at the chapel coming up in mid-September. The car has only a 4-cylinder engine so when we put on the air conditioning we get a double problem with the gas consumption, but we would rather be cool and pay some extra centimes.

Many of the French people just roll down the windows and take the blast of hot air rather than pay the extra price for having the air conditioner on. The taxes here are so high that it is the main complaint and the main cause for the high prices. They say that the economy is better here than in the U.S., but I can say that the prices here are much higher on everything than they are back home. Maybe the dollar has dropped in comparison to the Euro, and that hurts us here, but we get more bang for the buck than do the Europeans.

The government is a socialist society here so the people get everything covered by the government. One might say that this would solve all the social ills, but from what I see it has compounded the problems. The medical situations here have in some case come to a crisis state in the dental area, but are still good in most other areas. Dentists here are in short supply. Rather than try to save or restore the teeth as we do at home, they pull the teeth and that is that. This happens especially for those who can’t go off the government market to non-government dentists. The cost of a private dentist is very high and only the rich can afford them. You see a lot of smiles with missing teeth here.

France shuts down in August for a vacation period. For the first year, the French employee gets no vacation time, but in the second year it jumps to three weeks and August is the traditional month for vacations. If the lawyers and judges go on vacation in August, it is said, so do the assassins. It is true; the country almost shuts down and most things come to a screeching halt. I have a hard time picturing this in the U.S. The productivity of this country has to suffer for an old tradition. The French also only work 35 hours a week. The traditional 2 hours for lunch is also a problem for us. It makes us plan more because most everything closes down for two hours and from 12 to 2 you are in limbo.

We are in good health and the work keeps us busy and on our toes. We are dealing with a lot of poor health among the members here. We try to keep in touch with everyone and with the distance, it takes time. We have some sisters in pretty bad health. One just came out of the hospital and another just went in. Both have some life threatening problems. When we have situations like this, we take the sacrament to their homes and teach them a short spiritual thought.

I just wish that I was stronger in my faith to talk to everyone we meet. Today I failed to take an opportunity and then, when looking for which hospital our sick sister was in, we talked to a man who parked next to us and in the end made a rendezvous with him for Saturday. Since we are in the car, our opportunities are few and far between and I shouldn’t squander them. It still is a leap of faith to talk to everyone we meet. It would be easy if all the people who would join the church had a red dot on their collar, but since they don’t we need to talk to everyone with whom we come in contact.

We have had two fantastic Sunday meetings with visitors coming from different parts of the world. It is great for the branch members to see members coming to church while they are on vacation and for them to help fill the chapel with their presence and to help bring the Spirit as we worship together.

We love you all and ask you all to do the best you can so that life has that special meaning to it.

Love Elder Dad

Bonjour Everyone

2008-08-11T16:17:00.000-07:00

Bonjour everyone, and hope all is well with all of you.

First and foremost, we’d like to send our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to Andrea and Don on their upcoming marriage this week. We would be there to help you celebrate if it were at all possible, but just want you to know that our thoughts will be there for sure! Help us be a part of things by taking lots of pictures so we can see them soon. Our only advice for the two of you is to treat each other as you would want to be treated, and that takes care of most of anyone’s problems. We love you both, and hope your life together is a happy one.

After floating high on the heady cloud of the wedding, your real life begins as you land on earth again, and it’s wash day. Actually here it hasn’t been too bad at all; I don’t wash Jack’s suits, and we just have a load of whites and a load of darks to do about once a week. Drying things is more of a challenge, but we do have two of those collapsible drying racks, plus our imaginations. The chicken wire fence out back is perfect for the sheets, and when Jack pinned his blue jeans up on the roof storm drain, they were dry in record time. It’s funny though to come back home after appointments, and walk into the muggy, heavy air that hangs in the apt. from having our drying racks filled with wet things.

France is good at growing things, and they love their flowers especially. Open air flower shops are common, and the cities themselves vie for the title of Ville-Fleurie, that they win by how much they decorate their townships with flowers in every form. Each town has signs on all the major streets that show with posies how they are doing. Some towns have one posy, some have two, but Angouleme is a Four Posie Ville-Fleurie, and we’ve watched them work hard to maintain that distinction. When the spring blooms were past their prime in the round-a-bouts, and the islands in the streets, and in the parks, out came the workers to dig everything up and plant new, beautifully color coordinated beds of blooming flowers and bushes overnight. Some areas actually place planters in would-be parking spaces, in the street, to slow down traffic as well as grow more flowers, and drive motorists crazy. As soon as one flowering bush or tree stops blooming, it’s another one’s turn; I’m enjoying the sights to be seen.

As you can probably tell, summer is the slow time here; it feels like the whole country has taken a siesta! We met a bright young college student from Togo a couple of weeks ago, and had a great first meeting with her. She really is interested in reading the Book of Mormon. We have high hopes for her, but getting together again has been hard. Pray for the missionaries, they really are trying hard, but the opposition is great against them in so many ways; I am proud of their efforts.

That’s it from this part of the world for now.

Love, Mom (Joanne) Mam

Life in France

2008-07-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

Life in France has slowed down to a crawl. The summer months of July and August are when the locals disappear and leave things to the tourists. People are flocking to the Charente (our area which is named after the river here) mainly because it is a beautiful grape growing area, and there are many castles and chateau’s to see. We are also on the way to many famous sites, such as Lourdes, and others, plus the Airbus factory in Toulouse which I hear is a great tour. I always thought that shutters would be thrown open wide in the hot months, but nope, more often than not they are closed up tight to keep things cool and dark inside the house. Also, everything but the very largest stores close down from noon until two o’clock for lunch, so you have to plan ahead or you are out of luck with anything urgent.

Our recepisse’s (temporary permission to reside in France) will be out of date again in about a week and a half. So, we went to see why we haven’t received our permanent Carte de SeJour (well, permanent for a year, that is). The nice lady in the records office in St. Yrieix couldn’t understand why the delay either, so she called the head office in Angouleme. “Why, we sent that months ago!” Hmmmm. So our lady stayed ladylike and said that they had been having trouble with the mail in St. Yrieix, and would she please expedite that for us? Elle adit, oui (She said, yes). Hopefully we will get somewhere this time. We will have to go on a 2 hour drive for a Doctor’s examination as part of the process; that will be interesting.

It is hard on missionary work with people disappearing left and right. The Elder’s are getting rattayed (my spelling for appointments not kept) three out of four times, and people just leave and forget to call, so they get to the house, and there’s no one home. A perfect example of this is with our golden contact, Mme. Caillon. She was eating the Book of Mormon in great handfuls, and felt that it was true. She asked many questions and was satisfied with the answers, and wanted to hear more. She said, "The next time you come, I want you to tell me what I have to do to be baptized." What better words could a missionary want to hear? Then she had eye trouble, so we missed our meeting; then we came and saw a note pinned to her door (never a good sign said one of the Elders), and it was true. She had gone on vacation, and would see us again Sept. 8. That’s a long time (for us) to worry and fret about whether she will keep the spirit that she had been feeling so strongly. Then, there is Jean de Dieu (yes, his name is John of God), and he has been a joy to teach. He is a young African man, with a kind and gentle way about him, but his job keeps him on the road, either near or far, which makes him hard to catch. We go with the Elders because he asked that we come too. I feel bad that he comes home tired, but he welcomes us in, and treats us like royalty. He really liked the "First Vision" DVD, and is reading in the Book of Mormon, and knows that he is missing something in his life. We had a great discussion with him, and he gave a meaningful and tender prayer, and wanted us to come back soon. We set another appointment for three nights later, and when we knocked at the door, the Elder’s cell phone rang and it was him; he had been delayed and couldn’t get back in time. That was three weeks ago now, and no word since; it’s like he has vanished into thin air. We’ll keep trying, but life and people have us shaking our heads in wonderment sometimes.

The one French custom that I thought was kinda cute at first, the air kissing of your cheeks, (smack, first the one, then, smack, the other) is beginning to wear on me now. I enjoy a nice handshake, and a hug from a good friend, or someone you haven’t seen for awhile is great (and always from family!). But, now I get kisses from all the sisters every Sunday, and at every greeting at someone’s home, or at Family Home Evening, from people I’ve known for months, or perfect strangers, even from ladies I’m not so sure like me very much, every time we see them!! It’s nuts, and I wish they’d quit it! Our retiring mission president’s wife took me aside, and whispered that it was the ONE thing she would not miss when they returned to their home in Virginia, USA. One lady at church grabs my arms and kisses me with such gusto and loud smacks, that it leaves me with a ringing in my ears. With Sister Maitre, two won’t do, it’s got to be four (that means you are in, and are considered family!); and it was funny, we clashed glasses so badly at first, that she now always whips hers off with a big grin on her face. Men do get in on the act too, somewhat, and I got a big surprise when the second time I met Ives, a friend of Veronique’s, (the newly divorced member we are trying to help), he kissed my cheeks (I didn’t see it coming, at all) four times with day old stubble that had me wincing in pain. I had given him my carrot cake recipe, and so I now have a new friend for life! Sometimes I take the low road, and duck and run for cover; but I hate being a chicken, so I mostly just grin and bear it, after all, it’s part of the experience of being in France.

Love you lots, Sister Mom, Joanne, Grandma

Members

2008-07-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

We have some of the greatest members of the church in our fair burg. They have to work twice as hard to keep the faith than we who live close to the center of church headquarters, because they don’t have a large number of the faithful to depend on and this country and its government does everything it can to discourage faith.

The first member I will talk about is Sister Jacqueline Bouchard, our 81-year-old Relief Society President. Don’t let her age fool you because she has more energy than the Energizer Bunny. She still helps the infirmed with their house work and can keep up with the best of us. She has been out porting, door to door, with us and will speak to anyone at the drop of the hat.

In our Sunday meetings, you will get tired just watching her. She directs the Relief Society and plays the piano there, then she will give the Sunday School lesson, and to finish things off she will play the piano in sacrament meetings. She can give a great talk, which we do often because of our small numbers, and has a strong testimony. Her greatest desire is to serve a mission and we just finished her papers and made calls to SLC to the genealogy library president to have her come to his mission. This sister is as excited about serving and getting her call as any young elder or sister.

We have Family Home Evening with her and the other single members of the branch and she will take any assignment we issue. She can get into a lesson on the Gospel and play a mean game of UNO for the activity. She lost her husband some years ago, but that doesn’t stop her from making many trips to the Madrid temple (10 hours away) by herself in her little car. She is the greatest. She has the distinction of being one of the first women mayors of a town in the Charante.

The next is a high priest, Patrick Humblot. He lost a son 11 years ago when the son was serving in the military in Bosnia. This son was planning on a mission after his military service, but it wasn’t to be on earth. The death of the son caused the mother to go into depression and lose all control of her life. Patrick kept his faith with both the loss of his son and then the problems with his wife. His wife left him, but he stayed true to his testimony.

Patrick is the activity chairman and he does his job with a great deal of enthusiasm. He has the one thing that brings us very close and that is a great sense of humor. He is always on the phone with encouragement with a humorous slant. He gives great talks because he can put the Gospel subjects in a way that everyone can follow him and his humorous antidotes keep everyone on their toes. He loves history and is like me in the enthusiastic way he tackles his genealogy. He has an interesting job: he makes false teeth, crowns and bridges for the local dentists.

Alain Kaus is a single member who is 45-years-old. His family is from Austria and is of Jewish decent. The family came to France to escape Hitler and hide here in the Charante during the war. He served in the Foreign Legion for 5 years and was sent to Africa to fight for the French in wars in the former colonies.

He joined the church here in Angouleme after his military service and loves the Gospel. He works as a mason, but here in France this is one of those occupations that are at the mercy of the work available and all the work is only by the job. He and others have to meet at a central place so they can be picked for the jobs open at that time. He and the branch have been praying that he can find someone who will keep him hired and with his faith and the members fasting a praying, he has found someone to keep him on full time. He is a wiry thin man who you would not think to be a brick and block layer, but he works long hard hours. However I am the only one he has challenged that beat him in arm wrestling.

I have the distinction of being one of the few that can follow what he says because of my early training with the French language. Being taught by young neighborhood boys, I picked up much of the slang and Alain speaks in the French slang. He can speak properly and does so for talks and in his priesthood lessons each week, but he slips easily into the slang of the country whenever he can. Our English branch president brings me into his office whenever he interviews Alain because he can’t understand enough of the lingo to get all Alain is saying. Since I have the responsibility to get all active members to the temple, he and I have had some great discussions about the temple and he is planning to attend this fall for the first time. He had a great deal of stress over the fact that he had to kill other men in the opposing side of conflicts, but with much help from the branch presidency, love, the scriptures, and some recent talks by the brethren on the subject, he has overcome his feelings of guilt and is ready for his interview.

Alain is another member with a good sense of humor and I enjoy his love for life. He is always asking me if we have any single girls in our family and I always refer him to Joanne and since he doesn’t speak English the inquiry ends there.

The other member who I would like to talk about is a little mite of a sister, Marie-Christine Clenet. She is barely all of 4’10” and can’t weigh more than 90 pounds. She is in her 50’s and is single because she took care of her parents who were both sick for years. She is a librarian and can give the best talks without referring to her notes and can give a dynamic lesson that will keep you listening because of her knowledge of the Gospel and her quick wit. She can keep everyone on task with her kind ways of reminding us that we need to be on task.

She cooks for the branch meals even though she can’t often come and everyone can feel her sharing nature. She is always smiling even though all is not going right with health or family.

These and many others of the branch are the salt of the earth and will be very much my friends now and after this life. If I have learned one thing being here, that is that we are all God’s children and Upton Sinclair was right when he said there are only two types of people in this world, “Those I love and those I don’t know.”

Love, Elder Dad, Jack, Grandpa & Papa

Surprises

2008-07-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

Bonjour, to you all, my special family and our special friends. It’s a beautiful day to be in France, blue skies prevail and out in the country-side huge fields of sunflowers have popped open their golden heads. When I used to think of this country, Paris and fashion runways came to my mind first; I had no idea that they had such agricultural plentitude.

I still can’t figure out much of the food here, and Jack (even with his good command of the language) is not much help. We go to a grocery store and pour over the ingredients of cans and packages, and have only found two items, so far, that seem to be reduced in calories. So, we buy milk with a blue top, not red; and we know legere means light, so we buy those products, but what we mean by light, and what the French mean, can be quite different. Sometimes I just go by the picture on the package (ummm, that looks like what I want!), and when it is opened it doesn’t do what I expected in my recipe. A sister missionary friend of mine found a cookbook that converted French measurements to English; it was called, “A Little Taste of France," but when she looked for another copy for me, she couldn’t find one. They have cooking magazines just like we do at the checkout stands, and it’s fun to glance at them, but their ingredients are weighed . . . trey different! The funny thing is that now I have people wanting American measuring cups, so they can make carrot cake, 7-layer bars, brownies, etc.

We got treated to supper with a member, for taking care of his cats and fish while he was vacationing. He likes to cook, and the big platter of meat that he set before us looked interesting. We ate it with salad greens and balsamic dressing and baguette, of course. After eating seconds, Jack told me it was duck gizzards! It really WAS best that he waited with that little surprise.

Getting a new Mission President [President and Sister Carter] was a bit stressful, not knowing if he had an agenda planned for us, all different from that of Pres. Merrell’s way of doing things. The one e-mail we received from him told us that French would be spoken at all times; sounding a bit hard-line with all these American missionaries. Being from Quebec, speaking his native language made sense, but the Merrell’s spoke and taught mostly in English, with about 1/3 of the instruction in French.

We made it to Bordeaux with time to meet them before things started. He’s about my height and is quite bald (Jack has more hair than he does!), and was very soft spoken; his wife is shorter, very trim and retiring. Little did we expect what was coming! They started off with a bang—letting their life all hang out, and their story riveted us! They took turns speaking, and know how to teach, pronouncing words clearly, so that even I was able to get a lot without help. She said you will knock on doors all day long in France, and find people just like they were; living together without being married, full of the vices of the world, and uninterested in hearing your message. Her mother had joined the church after Sister Carter was out on her own, and living with a man (Pres. Carter) for 5 years. Their arrangement suited them both just fine, because marriage was not important to them. They let the Elders come mostly to be polite, and the message WAS different enough to be interesting. After months of thinking about what she’d been learning, one night while driving in the car, the strong thought came about what she would be giving up if she got baptized. “I’ll have to give up smoking!” The Spirit answered her thoughts, You won’t miss it. "I'll have to give up drinking." You won’t miss it. "I'll have to give up partying until 3 a.m.!" You won’t miss it. She told her companion that she’d been having a conversation with the Spirit, and was thinking about getting baptized. He was quite content with their living situation, (it worked for him!), and although for the past seven months of lessons, he enjoyed the intellectual stimulation the gospel gave his mind, his heart remained untouched. His Sunday school teacher was preparing her lesson, and was all ready when the Spirit whispered for her to teach on “testimony” instead. She said she tried to argue, but decided to follow the prompting, and began her lesson by softly singing the song, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives.” Brother Carter was so touched by the Spirit that tears began to flow down his cheeks and he absolutely could not stop crying for 15 minutes. They had to marry first, so they chose a weekday when only the 4 missionaries and a couple from their ward were therewith them. Their reception feast was Kool-Aid with pb & j sandwiches. Then, later that night, they were baptized in the river, and that was 30 years ago. They have remained faithful, and sent several children on missions, and they too have a brand new grandchild with another due in January. They are thrilled to be serving the Lord here in France, and we are thrilled with them. The entire meeting was in French, with humorous asides in English. They are both masters at teaching, each taking their turn, and the Spirit was so strong. My big surprise was, that I came to know that they were right about the language, and that even though I struggle, I am the better for it.

Love you all very much,

Sister Mom (Joanne) G’ma.

Time Flies

2008-07-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

All I can say is that not only do the hours pass quickly, but the day and weeks merge into each other until we lose track of time. There is so much to do and the time can move in a rapid pace. Sometime we think that we don’t have much to do during the week and then, before we know it, our week is full.

We have been given a further assignment by our new mission president to pin-point on a map what city our lost members are in. We sometimes know what city they are in through casual conversation with family members, but they don’t want to give addresses. We would like to get into those towns so we can check further with voting records, but you have to drive to the city and with the configuration of the Paris and Toulouse missions being so close to where we are, that means going into the other mission which is against mission rules. In order to cross into areas where there are no branches or wards of the church, we are going to have to receive permission from the church headquarters for Western Europe.

We will be working with members here to see how we can check the voting records, which are public record, and any other method of finding the lost sheep. It would be better to have a French speaking member with us who knows all the ins and outs and also knows the language and the exact words to say. Here in France, an individual who moves has to pay the postal service to get their mail transferred to them after a two week free service. That it makes it impossible to forward mail because few want to pay the charge.

The other problem that is happening here in France is that fewer and fewer people have a land line telephone connection. Most everyone you see on the street has their ear to a cell phone (portable). With few land lines, the telephone book or the internet yellow pages doesn’t become a very good resource. French drivers are not allowed to use cell phones while driving and for the large majority of drivers they don’t do it. It is not like the U.S. where every third driver has a new appendage hooked to the side of their head. We and other drivers are seen at the side of the road talking with the cell phones.

So we will be starting another major finding mission to pin-point the city, at least, where the lost sheep are located and see what the Western European leaders want us to do with this program. It might start some new creative ways to discover where some of the members are that have fallen through the cracks. This way, the ward and branch lists can be more up to date and we can give the members visits and encouragement. We are concerned especially about those who are elderly and who don’t have good family support.

One thing that is sad here in France is that family member’s often loose contact with one another. There is not the good family bond in many French families. It is not uncommon to find out when talking to people here that they have no contact with mother, father, or siblings. This is especially true when a spouse dies and the line between the other side of the family is broken by the death. The contact with the living half of the marriage partner ceases. The people here are a living example of the prophesy that talks about families loosing natural affection for one another and, sadly, for family members.

A world wide problem that is a common part of the society is divorce. It is rampant here among the French. It is rare to talk to French people without finding that the wife they now are with is not their first wife or visa-versa, with the husband. What happens here, as well in other countries, is that couples just don’t marry. There are some weird laws in France that actually encourage that. If you are married with two children and one of the couple dies, then the estate doesn’t go to the other half of the married couple. The estate is divided up between the surviving member and the two children. To avoid that problem, people don’t get married. The other situation is that church weddings are not recognized as valid weddings. Everyone must be married civilly for the wedding to get on the books. The city government charges a large sum for the wedding license and the use of the city hall for the ceremony and a good chunk for the mayor to perform the wedding. This was the way to get some money out of the public until the public said, “We know a way to avoid the dividing of property and the fee for the wedding; we won’t get married!” Hence the government has compounded the problem for the growth of families.

In meeting members of other churches, it is interesting to find that our church is the only one I have found so far that requires marriage before membership. The Jehovah’s Witnesses might be another one, but I have not had the opportunity to ask yet. Also, there doesn’t seem to be a big problem in the other churches if someone abandons their wife or husband and lives with another; they can still participate without any problem. There is no church disciplinary action if the person wants to be active in the other denominations. The commandments are being bent and broken all the time. The French society is going to rack and ruin before our eyes. Being here twice before, I can see a major difference as the years have progressed.

Despite all the situations that come our way, we are finding good people to teach and there seems to be a good movement forward in the branch. It is hard to find the willing with so few to do the work. We only have two Elders and us as full time missionaries in a city and suburbs that has close one hundred thousand people. You can see the task is huge. The members here are willing and do much to help and for that we are grateful. Some of the most devoted members are here in France facing big odds and hardships. The flock is small and sometimes persecution in employment and in general acceptance is the rule. Count your blessings in the U.S.

To give you an idea of the faithfulness of the members, we have our 81-year-old Relief Society President who is planning to go on a mission to the genealogy library in Salt Lake City. She is in great health and can run circles around me. Despite her family, who are not members and are opposed to her going, she has put her papers in and is now waiting for the call. I was able to phone and talk to the library supervisor, and they will flag her name. The only way the call will change is if when the application comes to the 12 apostles, they decide to change the request. The supervisor said that in the case of older members the call was 97% sure. It is great to see the eagerness of this 81-year-old member to serve the Lord. It puts many at home to shame.

I love the members here and the work will go forth if we but keep the faith and keep our focus on the prize. The Church is true and for that assurance I give thanks. I am grateful to have something concrete to hang onto in this troubled world.

Love to you all,

Elder Dad

France Is Modern

2008-07-04T13:45:00.000-07:00

It is good to finally get the Office Word working like it should so I can type the weekly letter at home and then attach it to the email. This way we can do this in the comfort of our place and not run to the Mall every time we want to email something.

I have been living the good life here in

France

since we were able to find some of the foods I enjoyed back home. The first thing was peanut butter. It is made in Mississippi, but I must say that it is very creamy and tastes as good as anything back home. The next thing was corn on the cob, yes real sweet corn. I have had it 4 times already and with butter and salt it makes coming here a delight. We were able to find good BBQ sauce made in the U.S. in the stores and the missionaries from the U.S. go the extra mile for some of Joanne’s pulled pork on a good French fresh bun. We still have not been able to find Root Beer in Angouleme, but we have heard that it is available in other cities in our zone, so all I have to do is arrange a swap and all my food groups will be taken care of. I must say that there are some things I wish I could return with. The grape juice is especially good and the fresh buns for hot dogs and BBQ sandwiches are much better that our hot dog buns.

We are having an experience with starting our Primary since we don’t have a lot of experienced hands to make it go as we like. The major problem is as these people come to church, their little children have not had the training to sit or work through a simple lesson or the big factor is sharing time. All this will take time, but we have a start. All of the things you take for granted at home don’t even register in a small branch.

We are teaching a blind lady who has had a Book of Mormon for years but has never been able to read it. She told us that she takes it were ever she goes and feels very safe with it near by. Elder Osborne had a copy of the Book of Mormon on tape in French, but it is missing the 1st two tapes which cover 1st Nephi (we claim it is missing the 1st 116 pages). She listened to the tapes that cover 2nd Nephi and when we came back she said it was just as she imagined and is thrilled to hear what she didn’t know before. She already has a testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. We are working at reading her the missing 1st Nephi.

We are always running into new situations that definitely stretch the imagination and make us rely on the inspiration of the Spirit. Being the only member of the branch presidency here during the week has us in many problems and situations that would be handled by others, but we do our best to give aid and comfort.

The weather has been hot the last week. It seems that we went in one day from spring to summer. The heat jumped from the low 70’s to the low 90’s and we found out quickly that we need the air conditioner. We take the car in tomorrow and that will help the old couple a lot.

Elder Dad

Wild Life

2008-07-04T13:37:00.000-07:00

Bonjour, are you all well? I sure hope that is the way it is with everyone; we are feeling great today because it dropped a good 15 degrees overnight, and we feel freshened and invigorated. We hear that July and August are the official vacation months in France, so I guess the tourists start arriving and the natives start scramming to anywhere but here!

Our day went south on us with Eric having to cancel our appointment, but it picked up big time when we dropped in on Mme. Carillon to bring her two mini bar-b-cue sandwiches to try. She’s our almost blind investigator, and she is a hoot. She is a live wire, with a huge smile and a great seeing eye dog that everyone loves because of her gentleness. She lives right on a busy street, and her window was wide open (no screens) when we came up. She had 2 guests, so we just talked and handed her the food right through the opening. She indicated her friend inside was the one who wanted to meet the Mormons, but was too shy; so Jack naturally popped his head in and invited her to our next meeting with Mme. C., and she said she would come. We hope to get her to church soon; she would be a shot in the arm in Relief Society with her lively sense of humor, and because she wants to know everything and isn’t afraid to ask.

We arrived at our regular meeting with Madeleine Chauveau, and found her laying down, looking white-faced and stricken. Two days earlier, her cleaning lady was with her when she suffered a mild heart attack and was able to get the proper pill into her mouth. She was weak and seemed ready to give up the ghost, so we had her call her doctor and he came and prescribed a patch for her chest, instead of the horse sized pills that made her stomach rebel. Jack got that filled for her and we got soup down her, and she asked for a blessing. We were in tears and felt like this was good-bye for good as we left that day, with the promise to return soon to help her change her patch. When we came three days later, she greeted us at the door with a huge smile of welcome, wearing a smart red and black top, and with her silver hair cut and permed to perfection. The patch was the right medication for her, and she was her former self again. Now she can go to England for her grandson’s wedding after all, and enjoy the trip.

Life is wild at times, but I was thinking of wild things that make me jump in the night, such as spiders . . . UGH! After showering one morning, I stepped into our bedroom and my foot just barely missed a humongous, black, 4 inch wide beastie, sauntering nonchalantly across the floor. I yelped, and leaped to the sky, and that got its attention, and it stopped to consider options. My option was to call for help, so Jack got a bit of toilet paper to snatch it up with (he thinks living things should fulfill the measure of their creation). But, when he saw it, he said, “I’m going to need MORE paper!” and he let the little hummer go out the window to live and scare again. The very next day, while running around without my glasses on, I wondered how the corner of our pink bedroom had become dirty all of a sudden, but the thought passed because I had other things on my mind. Then later, after a day with the Bennett’s, I plopped my weary, warm self down on the bed and noticed that spot again. Later, while getting dressed for English class, I looked up at that spot again, this time with my specs on, and the brilliant realization came to me that spots like that don’t just appear overnight! I moved closer for a better look, and sure enough, it was that spider again (or his evil twin brother!) cleverly concealing himself in the corner of a pink room! I hate spiders. Spiders in a house are not helping people by hunting for flies, they are after big game, and this one was thinking and planning and biding his time, waiting for the chance to get back at me, and looking for a nice juicy meal. Just the thought of a spider chewing on my ankle gives me the heebie-jeebies, so I called for help again, and this time Jack took him clear across the courtyard. I told him if I see him again, he’s MINE (my broom and I will make mince meat of him!). Funny enough, other things, like mosquitoes are nothing. I haven’t been bitten by even one mosquito; you just give them a hard stare and tell them to scram and they fly off home to mommy. Wyoming mosquitoes would eat their lunch, and take over the country too! I’ve seen a homely rabbit, snails, birds galore that eat your garden produce before you can, and have heard of hundreds of slugs on the move, and wild boars running through the woods. We did drive by a large chateau just at twilight, and the front meadow was full of almost a hundred deer running in their protected area . . . it seemed very medieval and picturesque, and we just sat and enjoyed it for awhile.

I think I’m wearing you out, but I missed doing my e-mail last week, so I’m long winded this time. I love you guys. Congrats to Sandra & Keith getting Mckenna blessed, and Anthony for getting married . . . some of the best times of our lives.

Sister Mom (Joanne)

New Branch

2008-06-24T23:13:00.000-07:00

Well things have changed drastically in the Aungouleme branch in the past couple of weeks. We now have 4 new children in the branch and there are hopes for more if we can reactivate another family. So with the new little ones in the branch the branch pres. has organized a primary. Up to this time, we have had one 8-year-old in the primary. With the addition of 4 younger ones, we have brought the nursery and the 3-year-olds together. We have a lack of helping hands, so everyone is together. Sister Humblot, Joanne and Margaret, the branch president's wife are now in it together. It will be interesting because these little ones need some help in a church setting. Little ones here in France are let go by most of their parents and so these little ones are coming at the right time to be trained in some good old fashion discipline.

I will be teaching the one young woman in Sunday School along with her father. The 1st counselor and his wife will teach the new Gospel Essentials class along with the help of the missionaries. The two missionaries are back where they belong. With the new influx of children came the need for their parents to be taught the basics of the Gospel. We have made some major adjustments, but we feel that in the long run the children will have two strong women in the Primary. The adults will get the milk of the Gospel. Before they were confused with the Sunday School class for the adult members.

We are turning the corner and we hope that the work continues. We had a good musical activity with almost the whole branch doing something. Even the princess and the frog sang together: Joann e and I. We had some amis attend and more come each Sunday. Our next activity will be a good, old fashioned picnic. Our activities chairman does a good job of organizing the events. The weather has taken to summer. One day it was spring and on the 21st of June it went into summer with a vengeance. We are getting our air conditioning in the car fixed next week, so for now it is the windows down and the tie loose and the top button of the white shirt undone. It is good to have an air conditioned McD's to type this message to all of you back home.

Love Elder Dad

Dinner Anyone?

2008-06-17T23:10:00.000-07:00

Hello to all of you back in the States. All is well with us and the work has its ups and downs, but the ups are ahead and that makes us look forward to a brighter future.

Joanne's cooking is becoming a favorite topic in the mission. Each third week in the branch there is a dinner provided by all the members, so that we can all sit down for a good meal after the meetings and everyone goes home happy and with some good conversation and closeness. Joanne is always worried that with all the single guys in the branch that there will never be enough to eat, so she gets out her recipes and cooks as if all the family was coming to dinner. The members usually supply one main dish and/or a dessert, but not Joanne. She cooks up a storm with me as the sous chef. I am always the one who peels, grates, and slices. As Joanne goes from one recipe to the other, I wash the dishes so she will have something clean to mix the next sauce or whip the next topping.

When everyone sits down to eat, there are glances around the table so that the members can spy Joanne's dishes. They are always polite because they know there is enough for seconds. Our bachelors always have seconds and after they have had their fill they then look forward to the desserts. The whole branch does so well in this area that we have to split the dessert courses into soft and hard categories. Last time there were three in the soft category and four of the hard delights.

The Elders get the leftovers and some times they can't carry everything home with them. The Elders in Angouleme eat better than any where else in the field, so I hear. Not only do they eat well the 3rd Sunday, but the small membership are always having them over for meals. Last week one of our Elders was put on a diet by the president.

The district meetings are a treat for the missionaries because Joanne always brings something special. The missionaries look forward to the times when we meet because there are few care packages from home when there there aren't special occasions. One missionary who had been out 3 months exclaimed when eating Joanne's treats, that it is the only taste of home he has had since he arrived in the mission field. When the meetings are held in Bordeaux, we make a double batch because two districts meet at the same time. Whenever a missionary gets transferred to Angouleme, he already knows about Joanne's cooking as the word has spread as the missionaries come and go from here. Also, the missionaries who get to the Bordeaux region also know that twice a month they will get a taste of home.

We are excited to serve in any way we can and cooking is one way. We have made progress with our amis and we have one baptism in the future. The young couple, after having two children, 3 and 1 1/2 are obtaining their marriage license and then after that happens we can proceed with the baptism. It is good to see the great changes that are made in the lives of people as they work toward living the Gospel.

We love you all and we love to hear from you.

Elder Dad

Random Thoughts

2008-06-17T22:53:00.000-07:00

Bonjour, from France. How are you all doing today? I finally broke down and bought the umbrella that I was going to buy way back in January. I kept thinking it's June, it's got to stop raining one of these days! So for once I was thoroughly and completely ready for a storm to hit. In normal times, that would be the way to bring on the hot summer days. But, we woke up yesterday to a whole day of hard, steady, pouring rain; and I opened my cute, orange plaid umbrella no less than 7 times in our comings and goings. I think it almost paid for itself at 5 Euros already.

Jack wouldn't let me read his email to you all, he said it was all about food. P-day starts off with french toast (I haven't found out if the French eat that yet!) Jack plunges (submerges, immerses) his bread into the egg mix for his toast, I think that looks gross. I like both sides dipped in quickly, and cooked well done; how did we ever get together anyway? I tried a new 4-red fruit jam that was so good. I think I'll ditch my dumb clothes and fill my suitcase up with jam when we go back home from our mission.

Remember the lady who thought our 800 churches had been closed by the government? Well, we passed by her place and found her home and she agreed to let us come and talk to her again. The Elders asked to come too, so we all trooped in from the rain yesterday and I think she felt a little invaded at first. She asked why we come in a crowd, and they explained that it was for protection for us all, her included, so that neighbors could not think wrong things. Things began to get better, although she seemed to take a dislike to Elder Giles, and his British accented French. She can't see a lot, the pupils of her eyes are a brown color, and she has a companion yellow lab that is so well trained that he stays in his big basket all the time. Jack talked about how the spirit testifies of the truth, and his experience of praying to know if the church and the Book of Mormon were true. He got a feeling in his heart that he could not deny, and knew that the church was true and then was baptized. The irrepressible Elder Giles told her how as a 17 year old boy, he took President Hinckley's challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. He accomplished it, and he gained a testimony of its truthfulness because of that. She has had a copy for a long time, and although she has never been able to read it, she told us that she feels its power, and takes it and her Bible with her wherever she goes. Elder Giles jumped on that like a dog on a bone; "You have been given a gift," he said, "the problem is you just can't open it yet!" So, they talked about bringing her the French tapes of the Book of Mormon; and we are trying to find a cassette player for her. We are going back again next week.

We have seen both our little sisters in the local Retraite's twice now. Poor Sister Collette is wheelchair bound and speechless. Her only sounds are guttural, so you just do your best with head bobs and pointing and she kisses her fingers for you when she is the happiest. We came Friday, right in the midst of the weekly do-good society meeting with the patients (not purposely). We got a lot of long looks as we saw her in the crowd and zeroed in on her. She was expecting us though, and waved cheerfully to her friends as we wheeled her off to her room. Jack set up the laptop and put in the Life of Christ DVD, and she was totally glued to the screen through the whole 30 minutes. People kept popping their heads in for this or that, and 2 ladies even came in to kiss her good-by (and to see what the heck we were up to in there), and she was still able to keep one eye on the story. I love this beautiful film, and was so touched by watching her as she watched all those images of Christ, and the compassion He had for the sick and afflicted of the world. Her body has failed her in so many ways, yet she is enduring to the end as best she can. Jack then gave her the first Sacrament she's had in years, and she was so eager to partake, it was a wonderful time for us all. Our visits to our "little mother" Louise Meslier began again with the "Director" personally escorting us up to her room (so we don't sneak into some poor, defenseless patients room and try to proselyte them!). When she saw us, she got this huge smile on her face, "Oh, you've come back!" She grabbed onto both of my hands and we had a happy reunion. I was so glad that she remembered us and that it made her happy! She just started chattering away, she rolls her R's like no one else I've heard yet, and it makes me laugh (and that makes her laugh, so it is good.) She had lots to say, and would ask me questions and Jack would answer, and she'd look at him, but said she didn't remember him. She got reacquainted with my plaque, and read it over and over and got pretty good at pronouncing Met-ta-call-fee. She turned 94 in April and has lost some acuteness and memory, but surprises you with some things out of the blue. We're back, and it's great.

Oh, oh ...witching hour has arrived, time to get hopping!

Love ya, Sister Mom (Joanne) Grandma

Red Letter Day

2008-06-10T23:09:00.000-07:00

Well, today we can report on a major success. With the help of Church lawyers we were able to get back in the rest homes around Angouleme and see our members that live in them. Our little Sister Louise Meslier was so glad to see Joanne again that she hugged her and wouldn't let her go. We had a wonderful visit with her and she is anxious for us to return. She has a problem remembering, but she remembered our pass a long card and Joanne. The other sister is Colettee and she is unable to speak but nods her head in the affirmative and negative. We gave her the same card as Louise with Christ at the open tomb and Mary with the Christ. Whenever we mentioned the teachings of the Church, she would kiss the card and when we asked her if she would like to take the sacrament, she kissed the card with vigor. We will go back Friday for that. This experience will rank as one of the best of my life as we were able to beat down the door of bigotry and bring the light of Christ into the life of deserving sisters. Steve Beck mentioned that I was a good person to help in the accomplishment of this because I don't give up when an injustice is being dealt out, but I was just one of many in this fight. Joanne's spirit with these two sisters and in other situations makes a big difference.

We live in the Seattle of France as we experience rain almost everyday. It keeps the temperature down but ups the humidity. I enjoy the lower temps but I have developed hay fever with all of the multitude of plants that flourish in this country. This country is so green and every where you travel the physical features change quickly. You can go from flat to rolling hills to small and large mountains in the matter of a half day's drive. The fun thing as you travel is
there are chateaus all along the way.

One thing I have not become use to is the round points. These are circles that take the place of four way stops. The person on the left always has the right of way with a myriad of exceptions. You must know the white stripes on the pavement to determine how you react to each situation. Without Joanne to help me see the swift moving traffic, especially motorbikes and motorcycles, we would be in many accidents. Angouleme with its 45,000 people has the forth most round points in France. My driving life is always exciting.

Another situation is finding a parking place. If you come to France you MUST learn to do a parallel park in good time. It is a good thing our car is small because one can't park even a midsized car in the places provided. Sometimes the place is so narrow that we are forced up on the curb with our small car (one set of tires on the road and one one the sidewalk). It is sometimes legal to put the whole car on the sidewalk where indicated. With one set of tires on the sidewalk, Joanne has to squeeze between the car and the wall that is always there. ALL French homes have a barrier between the house and the street for privacy. If there is a gate for the car to enter into the property, it is locked or functions with an electric signal. At the Church, the whole property has a high fence around it and a locked walk in and a locked drive in gate. It is a good thing we have a key to the drive in gate. But there is a problem to all this and that is that even with a small car the sidewalk is not wide enough, so our car sticks out into traffic.

One other feature of European cars is that because of the narrow streets, each car has the ability to turn in the side view mirrors as you park so that they don't get knocked off by passing cars. You will see many cars missing one or both side view mirrors. Even when driving on two way streets that are narrow and with parked cars on one side, you could loose your mirror. Buses have the right of way at all times and they are the biggest reason for no side mirrors. I move out of their way all the time.

Well, keep those cards and letters coming.

Love Elder Dad & Sister Mom

P-Day

2008-06-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

Bonjour! Help! Would you believe that we are being held hostage at McDonald's by the biggest, worse rainstorm that I've experienced since being here? It's been thunder, lightening, wind, hail, and hard driving rain for the last 2 hours, and hasn't let up yet. We're thinking of our cute baby tomatoes on the plants we were given to raise, and the sweet rows of beans Jack planted in the ground that are all of 3 inches high. He checks them out every time we come and each time we go! Maybe this is an isolated event, (ha, I was always good at wishful thinking!). I hope you are all doing well in your daily lives, I miss you.

No time at all last week for emailing, we were occupied with a member up to her neck with troubles. But, I thought I'd tell you about some of the interesting things we have done lately on our P-days. On our way to Oradour (more on that later), we followed the map and almost missed finding a site of uncovered second century Roman ruins. We bought tickets for the guided (hand held device with English narration) tour, and had the whole place to ourselves. It was called "Thermes Gallo-Romains," or in other words, a Roman bathhouse. It's spread out over quite a distance, with more to be uncovered as the money comes in for further excavation. A Roman bathhouse was a gathering place for socializing and relaxing, exercising and bathing, and swimming in heated waters as well as a cold tub. Slaves worked to keep it running smoothly, and the planning and design was ingenious. Much of the original walls and tile are still standing, and in good shape too.

This very day, June 10th, is the 65th anniversary of the town of Oradour sur Glane being wiped off the map completely by the Germans in 1944. We arrived there in a rainstorm, and sat it out to a light drizzle, then went to the memorial building that leads to the remains of the town itself. When the word got out what had happened there, they just buried the dead, and left the remains of the town just the way they found it. It is all very somber and sad, a vivid reminder of how terrible war can be. This had been a busy little town with many shops and homes and even a trolley down the main street. The Germans came seeking revenge against resistance fighters, and rounded up the population: men, women, children, babies, and by the end of that day the people were all dead, and the whole town set ablaze. Nothing was left but rubble and ruin and death; over 600 people murdered. It rained on us the whole time as we walked those streets, and it just seemed appropriate all in all.

We had Stake conference in Bordeaux last Sat. and Sunday, so we decided to leave real early and go see the ocean there. The sun came up in the reddest ball of fire and it was neat to be able to see it. The Elders had told us of some big sand dunes, so we decided to look for them. Well, they were hard to miss, as they stretch out along the coast for about 5 k. and it's a mystery as to why they are there. At the park we stopped at they were about the height of a 6-story building and had a plastic staircase going up the side. Hmmmmm. The bottom stairs were covered with sand, so Jack just plowed through and made it to the clean steps. I took off my sandals and grabbed the rope rail and hauled myself up through the difficult section. It was 8:30, and cool and cloudy, and the sand felt wonderful between my toes. Halfway up, the stairway had come apart for some reason, so that it took careful navigating. Finally, I made it to the top and could see the blue Atlantic ocean stretching out to America. We were all alone on top of the world it seemed. A sign directed people to descend down the dune itself, BUT, we were in the strange dune-climbing attire of suit, white shirt and tie, shiny black shoes, and skirt on me! (Good thing we were early, we probably would have drawn a crowd wanting pictures of the strange birds!) We made our way back down the way we came up, and all was well.

We are busy in all aspects of life and a mission is full of opportunities to grow spiritually as well as opening up horizons never before expected. We have been out 6 months now; I can hardly believe it. Well, let us know what the heck you are doing; I want to know all!

Love, Sister Mom (Joanne) Grandma :)

Hello from Angouleme

2008-05-28T13:58:00.000-07:00

Bonjour everyone . . . we're holding our breath hoping the sun will keep peeking out from behind all the clouds shrouding this place. I wore my raincoat all day yesterday, otherwise I would have been soaked like a wet puppy. We helped a young woman, unmarried and the mother of two little children, with something she needed for her kids. It was great to see the happy, trusting smile that lit up her face, replacing the wary, suspicious look she gave us the first time we
we knocked at her door. She left her kids with her boyfriend on Sunday, and came to all the meetings. The members welcomed her back so warmly, she used to be active, along with her family, but things fell apart when her mother died. The father became inactive, and still had Maia and her younger sister with him, while the older boys fared better, and are now active family men in the Bordeaux area. The best news is her boy friend wants to learn about the gospel and they want to be married this summer; we are going back at the end of the week.

I was asked to send a recent photo of Madeleine Chauveau to the ex-missionaries who knew her, so we went to Geant Casino and found an instant photo machine to try. "Things you learn the hard way!" = 1. Do not give it money first, because it won't give it back. 2. Stay calm, (even if you have a desire to kick the machine - Refrain!) and in the end it WILL give you something! Jack kept pushing buttons, so we didn't know how many photos to expect, and the machine spit
out four. By now, he was thoroughly disgusted, having spent several Euros on this venture; so we walked to a bench where I could put them into the letters, and he could begin to download a talk in this free WIFI mall. The computer was balking a bit, so he decided to try another place while I headed in the opposite direction to the postal office. Just as I was coming to the photo machine, I saw, incredibly, a picture of Sister Chauveau in the hands of a young, leather-clad, "biker" guy, with a shaved head and an earring sparkling in his ear! He looked a bit perplexed at having a picture of someone's great-grandmare in with his fist full of photos of bikes and babes! I was dumb-struck too, just kinda pointing & sputtering, "That's my, my, my . . ." He took a wide-eyed step backwards, while thrusting out his pictures at me, "Here, take them!!" And I did. There were three more pictures of her there, now was that just happenstance? Anyway, I was happy.

The Branch here is full of elderly people, so that the average age is easily 60. Our Branch Pres. joked with the Elders and us about bringing down the age to attract families. With the two families we are now teaching (with 5 babies between them), and another single mother with her two toddlers, we will do it in one fell swoop, and we'll have to start a nursery! We are very excited about this turn of events. Every third Sunday we bring food and we eat after the meetings are over.

We have to leave Luciane (a very different sister who loves to take charge and do things her way) in charge in the kitchen, while we have a quick (hopefully) meeting. People just bring what they want, so what you get can be interesting. This time there are 4 quiches, 2 salads. a pot of yummy lentil beans, and potato & ham casserole; and all 4 tables are filled with people. We brought left over hot dogs from the BBQ, and Luciane had cut them all in half. Jack passed out our carrot cake, and when he came to tiny Sis. Deni, he said loudly, "Soeur Deni won't want any of this carrot cake." She grabbed his arm and pulled the cake toward her . . . "Yes I do!" she emphatically stated. We clean up together, trying to stay out of Luciane's way. It is something they all look forward to.

We are reading Matthew, and the life of Jesus Christ was a wonder. I love how he talked to the people, "Those who have ears to hear, let them hear." Reread Chap. 13 and let's all be the "good" seed.

Love to you all.

Sister Mom, (Joanne) Grandma

What a week!

2008-05-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hello to everyone.

We have had a tremendous week. We went with one of our members, Alain Kaus, to an inactive member. She has very active brothers in the Church in other cities in the mission, but for some reason she went off the deep end after her mother died. We have seen her a couple of times in very poor living conditions with two children and a live-in boy friend. One good thing about it all is that the young man has stayed with her and the two children through these years. That is a rare situation in France.

We went to meet them in the apartment of the young man's sister and things were in bad shape. They live in the projects in Angouleme and the sister has two children, no husband and is off every night living a riotous life. The only reason she let Maia and the family to move in was so Maia could watch her children while she went off to play. The other bad thing about all of this is that Maia's boy friend has no job.

Well it does get better. Alain went back and met with them and committed them to meet with us. Then he picked Maia up on Sunday and brought her to church.It was a great meeting and it was the French Mother's Day. She felt the spirit and so when we went back yesterday and gave the restoration lesson all was well.

The young man knew about the church and found no problem with all we taught them. Now we have a wedding day for them and plans for the future. We have another amis we are teaching that has a government position in retraining people without jobs, so we are putting the two in contact with each other and praying that there is a good result. We are also seeing if he can do the cleaning and the gardening at the church since we now pay a company to do the work. We have another meeting with them on Friday with Alain. We will follow up with the video on the restoration.

We also got news about a sister we see 75 miles from the branch, Chantal Patricola. She just passed her written exams and will be moving to Angouleme.

She talked to our Sister Bouchard, Relief Society President and they have it worked out that Chantal will live with Sister Bouchard since there is a living space in her home for rent. This also gives Sister Bouchard someone to take care of the house since she is planning on a mission to the genealogy library in Salt Lake this September.

Someone might think that all of this is coincidence, but we know better. We see the hand of the Lord in all the good we try to do.

Love Elder Dad

Keeping Busy

2008-05-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

Bonjour, and have a beautiful brand new day to enjoy being alive! As for us, it's getting dark as the sun has set, and we're almost ready to hit the hay after another interesting day in Angouleme.

We finally were called in to pick up our new Recepisse's, to keep us legally here in France three more months, until Aug. 6. We tried for a week before the old one became out of date to see somebody about it at the City Offices. When time after time we were sent away because the lady in charge had the day off, or the office was closed on the day we came, etc.; we were finally informed that May is crazy month for getting anything done in France, so just don't worry about it! So, sounds good to us, but I do like the security of having that small document in my purse.

Little Sister Chaveau was sick on our regular meeting day of Wednesday, but called us to come see her on Saturday. The poor soul was x-rayed and they found calcium deposits in her sore shoulder, so that's why she's been having pain there. She had two prescriptions and needed Jack to interpret them again for her. One horse pill was scored so as to be broken in half and to be taken morning and night. She had taken the whole thing in the morning; so he broke a week's worth in half for her. The older we get, the more confusing "stuff" becomes, so it was nice to aid her, and she trusts him so. We've been reading in Alma about Ammon and King Lamoni, and she hung onto every word and laughed when some of the people thought Ammon was a "monster." I massaged her shoulder while he put the screws we bought into one of her shutter hinges that had come loose. He gave her the sacrament, and then I brought out the letter from the ex-Soeur Wylie (now Bradshaw) of Queen Creek, Az.

It was a beautiful letter, written with much love and regard to a special friend such as you meet in the mission field. In it, she told of naming her second daughter, (her third child) after Soeur Madeleine! Madeline gasped at this news, saying, "Nobody has ever been so kind to me!" Soeur Bradshaw told her of the special place she has in her heart for Soeur Madeline, and how she hopes to see her again, if not in this life, "I know I will see you in the next. We are sisters!" Then in an addition to me, she said she had used an Internet program to translate her letter into French, "since after 15 years my skills are not as great as they once were." She used large black print for the letter, and I had hoped that Soeur Madeleine would be able to discern it with her magnifying glass. Sadly, her eyes just could not handle the task, or make out the faces in the family picture that was included. But, the thought that she is remembered fondly by others makes her very happy, and we love seeing that.

So many members have interesting backgrounds. One of the strongest member here was raised by godless communists, where religion was not even mentioned. He became a Muslim to marry a girl when he was very young and in the French Peace Corps, serving in Madagascar. They divorced (such an easy solution) when she did not want to live in France with him. He found the Arab Muslims too militant, and drifted from that into seeking answers. The TJ's turned him off, and then one day two Elders "in ties" knocked on his door. He was baptized one month later, and I love hearing his testimony and his take on gospel subjects. Life is trying him right now, because of another divorce, which I really wish they could have avoided (but what do I know), except that two children are in the middle of a mess and it is sad. I hope Jean-Pierre Mazaleyrat, and his ex-wife Veronique, and their children Marion and Clemont find some peace in their lives. Pray for us all!

Thanks Jo, for the music, we are into recycling Christmas tunes now, and I'm not sure if I'm coming or going at times. I think of you, friends and family, and you make me smile.

Love, Sister Mom (Joanne) Grandma

We are Winning

2008-05-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

Hello to all,

We have been late the last couple of weeks because our plate has been full. When we get the chance to serve on our preparation day, we put the day off to when we have an opening. Since we are not restricted as are the Elders and Sisters of the younger persuasion, we can put our schedule as we need to.

We are writing to you about a major victory for the Church and for the rights of members in all of France. We told you earlier of our being cast out of the Homes for aged in Angouleme even when we have members to see. We were not about to let this situation go unchallenged. I guess it is the history teacher in me and bull dog in me that made me take the bull by the horns.

Our mission president, who was also upset about this situation, put us in contact with the Church lawyers in the European Mission Center in Germany. We sent e mails to them about the situation and the members names. I'll put in a pitch for journals at this time, since Joanne keeps a blow by blow description of each day, we were able to reconstruct the whole affair for the lawyers.

The Church lawyers then got in contact with the French lawyer that handles these and other affairs for the Church. He is an active member in Paris. We got a call from him one afternoon as we were visiting a member far from Angouleme. When I told him that we were forbidden to come to the Homes because we were a sect, he took the challenge personal. The Church has been declared three times in the last 30 years as a bonifide church in France.

We just got his letters to the directors of the Homes and he has very well stated our case according to French laws and the laws of the European Union. He knows his stuff and although he was polite, he was precise in his notation that unless representatives of the Church were allowed access, with our badges visible, the Church through Elder and Sister Metcalfe would take further legal action. I now know one reason why were sent to Angouleme. I was not willing to see the rights of Church members to be trampled on by bigots and Joanne's detailed records have been the way to see this situation through.

We have had other good things happen here but we have so much more to overcome. We will take those problems in the light of the Gospel of Christ and go at each situation with the same fight in us and with trust in Christ. Light is the only thing that can put darkness to flight.

Love Elder Dad

Strange Fruit

2008-05-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

Bonjour! How are you all doing this rainy month of May? Not raining where you are, huh? I'll send you some, we've got plenty, and to spare! Now I know why moss grows on everything in France; it is pretty to look at though. I was minding my own business going into the grocery store when a lady shoved two free items into my hands; a bottle which said Fruit and Rouges, (which I thought must be for cooking), and a sample bag of sweets. When I came back to where Jack was sitting doing email, he asked me to stop waving around that bottle of beer, it was unseemly for a missionary lady. Hmmmmm. You just never know around here, where just last week, I learned how to cook a garden snail. I think we all need to know this, in case of emergency. First, you have to catch them (they are tricky and faster than you'd think). Then put them in a box with cornmeal all over the bottom. They will try to escape, so cover the top with mesh and weigh it down because they are strong and will work together in a bid for freedom. They'll eat the cornmeal, and when their poop is white, that means they are all cleaned out and ready to cook. Boil them til the shell gets hard and pull out the gut part, and push in the meat part. Make a paste of garlic, butter and parsley and push that into the large end of the shell; top with butter and bake upside down in a special pan til the butter sizzles . . . and eat with baguette, of course! They really do love them here, and you can get them frozen.

When we did service with the Lemoges Branch at the Morrison's horse ranch last week, it was so good to be with all ages of men, women and children again. That's the one thing we really miss in Angouleme where the average age has got to be about 60. They have a horse farm with an old ramshackle house and barn all in one, the house being in the end part, about one forth of the entire structure. Good thing Brother Morrison is a builder, because he has put a lot of work into that place all ready. Today was fence erecting day, and 36 folks showed up to help. Jack jumped right in with the fence post pounder (a hand held tool) and I got a trowel and pulled weeds from around their entrance way. They fenced in the goats, and then worked on a long section for a paddock for the horses.

Carol Morrison is legally blind; no sight in one eye, but with 28 operations on the cataracts in the other eye, she can see a bit out of it. This lady is a true inspiration to everyone. She loves the church totally, and rides her horses, and told me her philosophy on raising them the way God would have us do. I was enthralled with her feelings about animals. She had made goat's milk ice cream for one and all and served it with jelly! (which turned out to be Jello), and that was pretty good. They are English, and sold their property in England to come here like 500,000 other retirees from there to live a cheaper, simpler life. It was a beautiful day and the Branch got a lot done for them.

Last night we (the missionaries) hosted the commemoration of the Priesthood program with a Bar-B-Que. We had an excellent turnout, and just the program would have made it worthwhile because the Elders and Jack did a good job with talks etc. But the day was made with the baked drumsticks (they usually stew them) in sauce, and pulled pork (that was unheard of) in sauce on a bun, and hot dogs with mustard, and cheesy potatoes (fat and cream-yum!), and a giant fruit salad. It is so much fun to introduce new (to them) food ideas, but I really was surprised at how they all loved Jack Daniel's Bar-B Que sauce, and I even found a recipe that's a reasonable facsimile to that, so I had lots of extra. We actually found that sauce at the store here, but it's costly.

Well, that's about all I can reasonably tell you about food right now without beginning to drool a bit with hunger. Hope you are healthy, happy and strong in the faith. We love you all, bye for now.

Love, Sister Mom (Joanne) Grandma

Good Day

2008-05-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

We had a great experience the other day. It was our trip to the outback to see Eric Foucrier. He and his mother have been on our route almost since we got here. We go to his house twice a month and bless the sacrament for him and go over the Sunday School lessons. We have been listening to the conference talks the last couple of times. The last time we listened to Bro. Bedenar and his talk on prayer. It had an effect on him and he committed to fast and pray last
fast Sunday. This time we listened to Bro Uchtdorf's talk on the faith of our fathers. This time it was for his Mother who is steeped in religious tradition. Since Eric is a priest and we received permission, he was able to bless the sacrament. After our lesson and the conference talk, he tried to teach his Mother that she needed to be baptized. She is still not there yet, but we are making headway. When our meeting was about to finish, he asked that the next time we come could we please bring him an envelop from church so he could pay his tithing. I about exploded with joy. It reminded me a little of the brethren meeting with members in the islands of the Pacific and paying their tithing before having the priesthood come in.

This progress is worth all the time and effort we have spent in France. Eric's health has not improved, but when we are there he has a new glow to him and with the help of Our Father in Heaven we will understand His will and accomplish it. I had the Spirit speak to me that Eric's situation will only come with much prayer and fasting.

We are doing well. Joanne had a quick health visit with our mission president in our last interview. He is a doctor and he got her on some medication that will reduce the swelling in the knee. We have seen more rain here in the last six months than we had seen in Cokeville in the last ten years. We are enjoying ourselves and making small steps of progress.

Love Elder Dad

Good Week

2008-05-06T11:51:00.000-07:00

Hello from France. The first news is that Joanne is getting quite a reputation for her goodies in the Charante and other areas in the south of France. We have been making food for the branch meal every 3rd Sunday of the month and the sisters have spent some time on one Sunday in Relief Society in having Joanne explain her method of fixing her main dishes, especially her deserts.

The Elders in district conferences get to sample our goodies. Two districts meet in the same chapel every two weeks and we take an American treat for the Elders. They look forward to each meeting not only for the spiritual food we receive but also the delights that they can savor after the meeting. Elder Page said that he has not had a care package from home for the three months he has been here on his mission, so the only taste of home he gets is at district meeting. I do the small mundane tasks with the goodies, but it is Joanne that adds the special touch and love in what she does. The care package from home helped the last time because when the Elders, 16 of them, tasted the butterscotch bars last time they were very glad that there were two per missionary. We have two Chinese missionaries in our area and they love the American treats. We have a good store for peanut butter here in Angouleme, so we have been giving jars of it to Elders who can't purchase it in the smaller cities where they labor. It is great to meet with the missionaries in district and zone conferences and feel of their enthusiasm and testimonies for the work.

We are making good progress in the branch. We are getting better attendance and people are bearing their testimonies that have not in the past. Joanne and I teach the only active teenager in Sunday school and she is thrilled that she has a young woman's class and a Sunday school class especially for her. We talked a couple of weeks ago about our Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness and our responsibility to help our ancestors with temple ordinances. The next Sunday, she exclaimed that her father and she are planning a trip to the Madrid temple in October. It is great to see progress.

Eric Fourcier fasted this fast Sunday for his health problems and I received permission from the branch presidency to have his bless the sacrament the next time we go to his home. He is a priest and blessed the sacrament at church before his illness, but this will be the first time in years. He is progressing in his testimony and we are working on bringing them to church when we commemorate the priesthood on the 15 of May. The Elders and the two of us have planned a short program at the chapel and then a bar-b-que after. We will get the fixings today.

We are going to teach a couple tonight about the church and their need for the gospel in their lives. We have a new short CD in French on "Finding Happiness" and we have felt the spirit that this is a good beginning to our meeting. We are also meeting with a sister who needs some help to come to church each Sunday with her husband. There have been some problems with one of her daughters, but the only way to show the way is to be faithful to the Lord. We pray and fast more now than ever before for the "amis", investigators and the members of the Church because we know the value of prayer and fasting and the prompting of the spirit for each situation.

I know that the situation with Eric will only come after much prayer and fasting. I hurt for this good brother who desires to be active and receive further blessings of the temple, but because of his physical and mental health problems can't fully participate. We know members back home who have all the opportunities to be blessed through the church and are in good health who throw away the chance to walk a few blocks to the Cokeville chapel. They should meet Eric.

Keep your cards and letters coming by snail or email coming and remember these people in your prayers. We love all of you.

Elder Dad

Memory Moments

2008-05-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

Bonjour, and I hope you all are doing well!

We had a wonderful turn in the weather, and have red roses blooming on a large bush just outside our window; I really love seeing the beautiful things of this world. It was actually so "hot" one day last week that we cooled off by walking around the man-made lake just across the road from us. It is a nice place, big enough for 2 man sailboats and wind surfing.

There is a huge complex attached with swimming pools and ice rinks, and exercise rooms even, but it's expensive, so kinda exclusive I think. But, walking is free! We found two leg exercise machines in the grassy area near the basketball courts, and so we tried them out. One was cycling and the other you sat and pushed your weight back and forth. For the small amount of time we spent on them, we both noticed a big improvement in our mutual problems, tired knees and legs, so we go there when we can.

After visiting Eric last Friday (we took pictures of him and Yann) we drove into Cognac to see if we could find the Chateau Chesnel. We located it, and took a quick picture through the open gate, and then thought that if we asked, we might be able to see more. It is not officially open for tours yet, but a woman came out of the chateau, (which is huge and shaped like [ that, only the wings are longer and the door is in the middle of the long end) and walked down the long walkway through an iron gate, and greeted us. Jack introduced us, and asked if she minded us taking a couple of outside shots, and she smiled and offered to show us all around the grounds.

It was so interesting: a deep, wide, dry moat all around, for protection, the walls are 4 feet thick in the chateau, so it looks roomier from the outside than it really is. She asked questions about our tags, wondering if Jack's first name was Elder, and figuring that mine wasn't Soeur, and it was so nice to talk intelligently to someone really listening to you, instead of thinking of ways to escape a discussion on faith. She asked searching questions and Jack bore strong testimony of the church and what our mission is all about here in France.

Her family grows grapes for fine wine, and she showed us the distillery room, equipment and oak barrels. We pass by the vineyards every time we drive to Bordeaux, and the best grapes grow all through this whole area. As we left, Jack ran back to give her a pamphlet on the family, and she gave us a postcard with a rendering of the chateau on it.

One Monday night when only we and the elders and Jean-Jac (church caretaker) showed up for FHE, we decided to take a field trip to view a special mass to be held in honor of the Virgin Mary at her very own church in Angouleme, the chapel Notre Dame D'Obezine. It is close by our church, just up in the ville, and if we hurried we might get a seat. So, we all squeezed into the Renault, and took off, expecting maybe a crowd. We parked a block away and walked in, 10 minutes early, to find the huge chapel full of mostly empty folding chairs, except for the hundred or so people right up front.

We sat in a row about halfway back in the chapel, with at least one half of the chairs ahead of us empty still. With four of us wearing our plaques, and JJ in the middle (scruffy and toothless), we kinda made an impression on one and all. The Priest made a 'big' point of coming to us and shaking our hands and asking who we were and welcoming us very graciously. I was impressed by his sincere niceness. He wore a simple flowing robe and greeted people left and right. The mass began with a canter type manchant-singing in a loud voice, and we could follow along the words in the program.

A man played the organ along side of the room, and the people stood up, and then sat, and then stood up again for quite awhile. The Priest then spoke, and I was very surprised to hear him say the name of our church. Jack said he announced we were visitors, and although we worship differently, we were very welcome here. People's heads turned to see the strange ones, and then the program continued. I liked when the congregation then turned to the strangers beside them and shook their hands in friendship. Several came to us, especially after the Priest made his way down the aisle to shake OUR hands once again! I was a big recipient, being seated on the aisle, and it was fun. Then, two people began passing the tray for donations, and it was hard not to get into my purse, but Jack gave me a quelling look, and I came to my senses. The program ended at 8, and people made their way out and had to pass us as we just sat and smiled. The Priest (seemed fascinated with us) was at our side once again, and it would have been so interesting to talk to him for real. Sheesh, I could go on and on all day!

That's it for now..we are well, and have two interesting appointments tonight.

Prayers welcome!

Love, Sister Mom

Who Said Church Is Dull?

2008-04-29T22:24:00.000-07:00

Bonjour to all you good people out there!

Wow! Thanks for your mail, and letting us know the latest news from the home front. Life can be so good, and so hard at times. Congratulations to you on your taking that big step, Anthony! We love you. So sorry for the heartbreaking events in Cokeville recently; without the gospel to cling to what would people do? I want you to know that being far from you is not easy, but we have come closer to our Heavenly Father. It's really a process of reading the scriptures often to find out His will for His children, and making sincere prayer a priority in my daily life. I feel closer to Him all the time, and that gives me much comfort.

We went to an Ami's (investigator) home with the Elders, since they couldn't teach a single woman alone. It was such a positive experience, and she was so open. When Jack asked if she would come to church on Sunday, she said, "Yes, I can do that," and we about fell off our chairs with happy shock. We arranged to pick her up, and then, at 2 a.m. in the morning she rang up the Elders and said that she'd heard that 800 churches had been closed in the U.S., and so she changed her mind, and hung up! Hmmmmm; 800 L.D.S. churches?? When we heard about it we asked a member to check the Internet for any information at all on any churches being closed. There was none. Besides which it would be unconstitutional, says Jack. But, she would not answer her phone, so that was that for now. Thankfully she gave the Elders another appointment, and we will be seeing her again this week.

So, we picked up Veronique, the volatile, just divorced mother of 2 we are trying to help by befriending her. She dresses in very showy, bright clothes compared to the rest of us fogies, and today looked very springlike in a bright pink chimese dress and heels. Her ex-husband had the kids this week, and is trying to put his life back together calmly and correctly, and it is hard for them both. Everything was fine through the first 2 meetings, and then after the sacrament had been passed and the program began, Veronique realized that Jean-Pierre was the main speaker. He had not been able to participate until things were ironed out between them and the divorce was final. Now, he was asked to talk about the restoration of the Priesthood, and is very knowledgeable and competent to do it. When he had been speaking for a couple of minutes, all of a sudden a flash of pink rushed to the stage. Veronique began to whisper furiously into Jack's ear, and he got up and they went by the podium where the poor man was struggling to stay on the subject. It took several minutes of reasoning with her that everybody can have a second chance, and so she needed to not make it any harder for him and their 2 children than necessary.

They came back in, but she still jumped up and ran out two more times because of her high emotional state. The Elders had a new person there, and we had the Auje's, and although it was a slightly chaotic day, actually we have all been invited to return for further visits. What had us all shaking our heads in frustration has turned out OK, we think. We spent more time with Veronique later that day and brought dinner to her, and we all enjoyed ourselves. Oops, I'm almost out of time. I just wanted you to know life is really nuts here sometimes, but for the most part it is super, and I love it.

Thinking of you, Sister Mom (Joanne)

Another Busy Week

2008-04-29T22:12:00.000-07:00

We have just come back from doing a service project for a member of the church north of Angouleme. We took the Elders to some chateau sites on the way. No matter where you go in the province in the Charante there are plenty of good chateaus to see and today was no exception. We had a good picnic of sandwiches, potato salad, fruit salad, and some rhubarb treats that Joanne whipped up last night. One thing about living in France is that you only get fresh fruits and vegs in the season which they grow. The local goods are the best and even though things do come from Spain and North Africa, the best tasting comes locally.

We stopped in at the Morrison family to do our service. They are an English family that have moved from England because their area got too crowded. They sold their home and two acres of ground in England and with that they bought a ranch in France. The house and the out buildings are fixer uppers, but all this gives them the opportunity to raise horses. Carol is legally blind, but has sight in one eye that allows her to make halters with a very soft rope and she sells them world wide. Ray is a big burly fellow who almost lifted me off the ground the first time we met. He is a carpenter by trade and they are in the process of building a barn. Once that is done, they will be able to move the workshops and he can start making furniture and working in the local area for others.

Today we helped spread a gravel mixture over a 1000 square foot court yard. They were grateful for the help of one old guy and two young Elders. We got done in 2 hours. Ray said that it would have taken him until 7 PM to do it all by himself and we were done by 3PM. Good for me to get my heart rate up to a respectable level for once. I get tired sitting in the car going to Bordeaux and around the countryside. I think that meeting with good members of Church all over the area pays more great dividends than having a sore behind once in a while and is well worth the small discomfort.

We are meeting with Eric and his mother twice a month and the last time we were there it was Eric who was teaching his mother and bearing testimony. She is asking good questions. We are also teaching a couple in their 40's. They came to church last Sunday and we have a follow up meeting Thursday. Keep them in your prayers. There names are Carol and Dominique Auje. Ohjay in Joanne's phonic french.

It is such a pleasure to go to Sister Adele, a 77-year-old shut-in. She smiles when we come and she even likes it when I sing with Joanne. She is starting to hum the songs and we will have her singing soon. Adele is very humble and is reticent too, but last week she was willing to say the closing prayer. Last time we taught the Plan of Salvation with the use of a visual. When we were through, I asked her where she wanted to go after this life and she put her finger smack in the middle of the top circle and said, "I want to go there, the Celestial Kingdom." It is a great blessing to see the progress she has made over the last four months. From a shy woman who thought her name was off the Church register, to someone who gives good kisses on both cheeks of Joanne and gives me a beaming smile as we leave when I say, Soyez sage or be good. This
is what this work is all about.

We are in good health and although the rain keeps us from doing a little port-a-port, door to door, tracting with the Elders, there is plenty to do. Being the 2nd counselor keeps us hopping since we are the only ones to represent the branch presidency during the week. We love you all and appreciate your support and prayers. The work is moving slowly, but is moving forward and that is what counts.

I Am Here

2008-04-26T21:48:00.000-07:00

Bonjour my family and friends!

This is the end of an interesting week for me, first getting through my "discourse" in Sacrament somehow, and then getting permission to visit overnight with our Branch President and his wife.

I worked so hard to translate my French talk into a work of phonics, so that I could pronounce the words correctly, so the members could understand me. This is a sample: UH AMI MA-DI UH JOUR, KUH LAY FAMM KEY SON DON L'EGLISE SON TREY DURR EN SWA-MEMM. ELLE PONSE KELL-DWA ETRA PAR-FAY EN TOOT CHOSE! (I hope I haven't killed you off, Elder Betteridge!) I had seven pages of this, double spaced and written in my best elementary school capitol letters. But, as I began to reread it, it looked and sounded like complete gibberish to me, just sounds without meaning. I wanted to toss it into the trash and run for the hills!

Jack tried to calm me down by "helping" me to see my small errors: not "honking" my EN, and saying A for ah, and ah for A, mixing up une and un, et and est... EEEK! The night before, our new transfer, Elder Mayo, counseled me on learning French by reading the real words, not made up ones, and that made total sense, so I began to change things back. Now my papers were covered with colorful red and green marks and arrows and frowney faces, etc. and was scary to look at. Now Jack counseled me to start over, and redo the whole thing, and reluctantly, I could see that he was right, so I stayed up until 11 doing it how I figured was best for me.

With only 20 or so people to serve, the Sacrament is over in a heartbeat, and as I began, you could literally hear a pin drop. The members are so patient with us fracturing their language, they were wonderful with their compliments afterwards. Even Jean-Jac shook my hand and claimed to understand my words. C'est vrait?, I asked him. He said, Oui, it is true! (This is from a man that most French people can't even understand! :) )

We drove early in the morning on Monday to Breve, which is past Perigouex (the farthest point south we have ventured so far). The countryside totally changes there, becoming more mountainous (a high of 600 ft.) and rocky, and was very picturesque of course. We located a couple of great chateaus along the river on our way, and still got there at noon as planned. The Ashpoles are great people, and they both are full of stories told with great gusto along with their very droll British sense of humor. They insisted on showing us some sights, and we were soon flying low over hill and dale in their late model Peugeot. Pres. A used to fly helicopters for British Airlines, and I think he was having flashbacks! We had a late dinner and went to bed without tackling the member list that was the reason for our visit!

Tuesday (our P-day), dawned even more rainy than the day before, but they had more to show us, so armed with our umbrellas we took off again. Oh, my it was terrific. We saw the red village . . a beautifully laid out ville where all the houses and church and buildings are all built of red brick like rock. It was so interesting because the rest of the country is of normal rock. Then we went to a famous abbey built high on a rock cliff where the monks ascended the stairs on their knees. We took a tram to get to the place, and tourists flock there so of course there are many shops and stores. We were up that night too, so we stayed an extra day and they got the member list tackled in the morning. You see that couple missionaries have much lee-way, and are encouraged to take time for themselves.

Well, that's all for now, take care.

Love you, Sister Mom

News from France

2008-04-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

Hello from France. We are spending a couple of days with our branch president as we see a few sites and get the branch list up to date. We have contacted all the members that are on the list and many we can't find and many have moved. Our Stake President said to cross the members off the list that have moved and those who have we can't find, so that is what we are doing. The member list has not been updated for ten years.

We are having some great experiences taking the gospel to members way out of town and those who can't get to church because of health reasons. We have been going to 77-year-old Sister Adele Soubaraud and have been working with her for the last three months. We have started to teach her the gospel from scratch and give her confidence in her faith. I have been stressing prayer with her and trying to get her to pray morning and night. This week, we asked her about her prayers and she said that she was able to start but she has not been able to get her prayers finished. We then taught the simple stages of prayer again and then asked her to close with prayer. She was willing and that alone was a great experience from a Sister who is shy and not to confident in her abilities. With more teaching and letting her know she could do it she offered the prayer. What a great spiritual blessing! When we congratulated her on a beautiful prayer, she beamed with a beautiful smile. I am grateful for these blessings to see the progress of the members we are seeing.

We saw and taught Eric Fourcier and his mother, Yann last week. During our Sunday School lesson, Yann had a number of questions on the passages of the Bookof Mormon and it was great to have her son teach her the principles of the gospel. Her questions showed a lot of thought and some good progress. He is still in pain and we are still praying and fasting to hear our Father in Heaven's answer. I felt the Spirit tell me that the answer to his situation will only come through much prayer and fasting. Eric is willing to fast and pray with us.

We have been active on all fronts and our days are filled with teaching opportunities and we love the time spent. We come home tired but we know that the work is going forward. Our Stake President blessed the city and the area and rededicated the city to the teaching of the gospel. We had a good attendance at church last week as 3 children (two at the age of 3 and 18 months and one new born), of an inactive member were blessed as well as her active brother's new son. Her brother is from Bordeaux.

Good time are had by both of us and we are in good health and fine spirits.

Love Elder Dad, Grandpa, Papa, and Jack