Christmas in France

A Merry Christmas to All,

We spent the morning before Christmas preparing an American meal for our host, the two Elders and one reactivated Sister. I did my best to help in peeling potatoes, carrots, dicing onions, getting the avocados mashed and all the other things the chef needed me to do.

We fixed a five course meal that even blew our host away. The hard part was finding the ingredients that were as close as we could get to what was back home and then adding a pinch of this and a dash of that to get it to match. Joanne is a wonder and the two missionaries couldn't get enough. Even the cheese cake turned out with her usual panache.

On Christmas day we had a typical French Christmas with the Elders, the Relief Society Pres., and our host fixed the meal. We started with oysters on the half shell, two for your mother and one for me. I don't know how anyone can eat something that has no taste with exception of sea water. I didn't even find any pearls. We had whole shrimp, so we had to take the heads and feet off and get the outside schell off. Too much work for so little reward. The main course was veal stew with rice. No pre-work so I did all right there and it was tasty. Cheese and then a Christmas log. I have to be careful with the cheese because I find it much better than at home and with hundreds of varieties. The Christmas log is also full of delicious stuff that I should avoid.

We had a good Christmas carol with the English couple "Bennett" and then yesterday met with an inactive sister and were able to give her teenage boys who are not members, Christmas wrapped Book of Mormons. The teaching session went very well with the Spirit giving words to my remembrance. We have another meeting with them next week and both the boys committed to start reading. We went over the promise in Moroni and they were both impressed.

This week will be with more traveling to the members in the outlying villages and with the children of our host who are not members of the Church.

Much Love to all

Elder Dad and Sister Mom

Please disregard the grammar and spelling mistakes as this computer of our hosts is the most trouble some of any I have ever typed on and won't do what you ask. So I send this to you as is.

NEWS

Good Monday morning to you all-

I am writing this from a huge, three story, ancient farm house in a small village way outside of Angouleme. Our Branch President promised us a 'soft' landing here if he didn't have an apartment for us, and this is it.

A newly baptized member welcomed us into a wing of his old family home, and it is something to behold. From the second floor I'm looking out over the orange tiled roofs and rock walls (houses and fences as well) that totally characterize the look of this country.

Our host, Bro. Mangou, is restoring his home room by room, this one being about half done with fancy fleur-de lei wallpaper on one end and bare sheet rock on the other. A carpeted,wooden spiral staircase takes us from the entry hall to our rooms upstairs and then continues on up uncarpeted into a kinda spooky looking area that is very dark. If we had kids with us, I'm sure they'd think this is a haunted house and act accordingly!

After staying at the mission home til Monday, we were literally kicked out of the nest with a car we were unfamiliar with, and a cell phone we didn't know how to work, and our first task was to find ourselves an apartment, which they hadn't been able to do for 5 months! We didn't take the fastest way to Angouleme by the freeway, or we would have been taxed 50 Euros (the government loves to tax anything not tied down--that's one reason the church has a tough time finding apartments for missionaries.

They have to be very careful or the gov. can reach right in and scoop up church money, and we cannot sign for an apartment or they could tax our pension for over 60%!), so we pointed ourselves north and took off with fingers crossed. There are no cross streets here, just round-a-bouts every time you turn around, and the French just zoom, zoom past in their little cars with determined expressions on their faces. I felt like I was hanging on for dear life, but thoroughly enjoying the scenery, while Jack was sweating the ever-changing round-a-bouts wondering what the other guy was going to do next! Finally we hit the countryside and the traffic abated and we exhaled again.

We stayed at a local hotel for two nights and ran around with the R.S. president every day following up leads for apts. I could write a sonnet of praise for this spunky little woman, I love her so much. She would not rest until we got a place to live. We found one right downtown we thought would work (I could tell she had trouble with it, but deferred to us).

We began the rental process, but the same roadblocks came up (because the church pays them, and we pay the church) and they were dragging their feet. We went to Bro. Mangou's Wed. night, and the next day got a frantic call from Sis. Bouschard that she had found a place for us to see that night.

We took our MTC French sister's precious letter with us out for our first contact in France as promised, and had a very interesting exchange with her uncle. I'll save that for another time. The apt. is privately owned by a widow, and she agreed to rent to us, but it will not be available until Jan. 6, so we will stay here until then. I must end this novel now .....

Love to you all, I miss you.

Love, Mom-Joanne-Grandma

p.s. Please save these from your end for us - thanks!

Our Trip & First Days in the Mission Field

Hello from Angouleme,

We have tried twice to send a message and each time it goes into computer space. We had a long 29 hours to get to Toulouse. Our 8:47 AM flight was delayed, missed our connection to Paris. Got another later connection and the plane still couldn't get off the ground and missed the second connection. We finally got a flight to Cincinnati, Ohio and then on to Paris. Connection to Toulouse. After Sat. and Sunday in Toulouse, they let us go to Angouleme on Monday.

We got here Monday night and met with Sister Bouchard who is a living angel. We went house hunting Tues and found a place, but the association who owns the apartment had to make a decision. The next day Sisiter Bouchard found a better place and so we got the mission to send the landlady a check. We will be in on Jan. 5th.

Right now we are staying at a members house out in the country. It is a typical french farm house. It is like going back 300 years. Luck has it that there is running water and a good bathroom. Went out today to deliver the letter and then meet with the missionaries and their little English class. We have a song to sing for the Christmas Fete. More to follow.

Love Dad

'Allo, just call me Madame Metcalfe from now on, it has such an elegant sound don't you think?

Somehow my two hours of labor on this computer was lost into e-mail ether this morning, so even though I swore never again to go through this torture, I lied. We arrived at Charles de Gaulle air-port, and on to Toulouse in pouring rain on Sat. and it stayed cold and wet through the weekend.

The mission home is large and spacious and set in beautiful grounds. We got to sleep in the two bottom bunk beds in the room just recently vacated by the 4 young Elders we said good-by to in the MTC just last week. They were super young men who will be good missionaries. Sister Merrell fed us well (she made a stack of crepes and they were yummy when filled with good stuff ) and we enjoyed getting to know the youngest kids in their family, their 3 teenage kids. Sleep was an on & off affair with several spur of the moment naps, but we did OK. Church was so interesting because the people looked and acted like people I've known all my life, except I couldn't understand what they were saying to me. I just kept nodding and smiling and holding on to Jack! The teacher for the investigator class had me completely enthralled with her terrific use of the blackboard, and her testimony came through loud and clear as she taught us about who God is. On our way out, I patted the cheeks of a darling baby, and later on that night President Merrell gave us an amazing directive. He said that under no circumstances were we to touch any child in any way, shape or form...no way, no how. This is to protect us against any misunderstanding, real or imagined....wow, what a sad state the world is in today. I'm sure glad I got in a lot of baby holding before I left. Gotta run, it's 11:20, time for bed.

Love, MOM

We Have Arrived

Hello to all. This is a short note to let you know that we have arrived. We are in Toulouse and spent Sunday with the Saints. We are going to the mission office in a little bit and then on to Anglouleme. We will be staying in a hotel for two nights and then with a member until we find a place of our own. Big letter coming later.

Love Mom and Dad

MTC

We have been here for the past 7 days and everyday except our P-day was packed with activities. We start at 6:00 each morning and go to the cafeteria for breakfast. There is plenty of choices but we are able to keep the amount down so we don't balloon. We start our classes at 8:00 and the teachers have given us a crammed course in the first week. We got in 4 days what the young elders and sisters get in 18 days.

Our first teaching opportunity was a struggle because it was new to the two of us and we were not used to working the message together, but as the days went on and we learned to work together the subsequent teaching situations went much better.

Our classes would go to lunch and then through the afternoon. After supper we would have French lessons with brother Betteridge would returned from his mission in the French area of Switzerland 6 months ago. Each night there was some other devotional that helped us spiritually.

On Saturday we had a P-day. It was much needed. We went to the temple early in the morning and then spent the rest of the day at BYU and with Jo and the family.On Sunday we met with the French missionary branch and enjoyed their testimonies in French. Four of the missionaries who are going to Toulouse sang a beautiful French hymn. It will be a privilege to be in the same mission with them.

We are now in the office training phase but we need to change the direction for our needs since we will be in a branch of the church and not in the mission office. We need to know about how to keep all the records in the branch and so we will see if we can get that help today.

We had a great experience one morning at breakfast. It is my habit to say "Bon jour" to all I meet. This morning I was prompted to sit with two sister missionaries. So as your Mom and I were sitting down, I said "Bon jour", to the sisters.

One of the sisters started to speak French. She is from Paris and is going to Washington D.C. on her mission. She asked us where we were going and I told her we were headed for Toulouse, France. I then told her that we had been given an assignment to go to the city of Angouleme. She came off her chair a few inches as if she had been hit with a hat pin. She said she has an uncle just outside of Angouleme and asked if we would go visit him. We said we would make him our first visit. He and his family are not active so she wrote a letter of introduction and her testimony for us to take to them. With 5 thousand miles between us and the MTC as a meeting place, I don't think this is a coincidence.

We are healthy and doing well together. We are anxious to be on our way to France and to our assignment. Our Branch President and his wife Margaret are from England and we have been in touch with them. We feel like we have known them for a long time. We have work to do and we are both eager to get our feet on the ground and start shuffling quickly.

We had a great time meeting Kalvin, from Cokeville, and his companion. He was a little sad that his visa didn't come on time and that he would have to stay in Provo for the rest of his MTC experience instead of heading to Madrid, Spain. He will be a great missionary with his attitude.

Love to all,

Mom & Dad