Bonjour from a pouring rainy day, one of a string of such days, in Angouleme. I love the rain, it has brought forth the blooming of the trees and flowers all around, but I wish you all could get some of this wet stuff too. We have kinda settled into a routine of taking care of some of the sweetest people on earth. Chantel Patricola lives all by herself in a one house hamlet that she retreated to after a nasty divorce. She works in an old folks home, and in her spare time tries to fix up this falling down old farm house. When we brought her the Sacrament for the first time in years, it was a very emotional moment for her, and the spirit was very strong. We are going again next week after our trip to District meeting in Bordeaux, and are bringing the Elders to meet her. We hope to be able to help her fix the hole in her tile roof before too long. She has a lot of gumption and courage and I'm so glad she had not lost the hope of the gospel in her life.
We meet with the Renaudet's and their friend Valore, who lives with them, every Sunday night. At first, I thought he was their own personal 'Korihor', the doubter, the questioner, the burr in the side, that kept them from progressing with his constant stream of unbelief of everything. We've actually gotten to like him a lot though, and he seems to think of Jack as a father figure (my opinion) as we've had some great discussions with these three. Patricia is a cat lover, with cats real and not, all over the apt. I was saying the prayer, when all of a sudden a whiskered hairy nose nuzzled my lips! I squeaked and someone brushed my mouth with their hand, I thought it was Jack, telling me to stay calm in the face of any adversity, but he said, no, it wasn't him. Anyway, we all had a laugh about that one. Patricia is the spiritual one that feels close to God in her life. She is so friendly and fun to be with. She thinks deeply about things and wants to know if the gospel is true, so has committed to pray about that in a special place she knows about on their vacation trip this week. Her nutty husband, Jean-Luc is a reed in the wind, tossed to and fro by every new piece of information that comes his way. They were baptized years ago, and then went inactive because of a happening at the branch that made the strong ones stronger. I really like Jean-Luc (he reminds me of Gus-Gus, Cinderella's little mouse friend), and frankly he cracks me up all the time with his facial expressions. He really likes me because I make him Carrot cake, and he wants to keep me there to cook for them. That's not saying a whole lot, because we found out that they eat out constantly, even though they only live on her salary . . . he is on some sort of disability and does get money from this socialist govt. for that. I could tell you reams about them and we are almost at our wits end with them, but we don't want to quit them if there is hope there.
We bought some sneakers to do service in . . . neither of us had anything suitable. That was fun because Jack found a two for the price of one sale in the men's department and thought that was the way to go. His choice was a snazzy tan and brown pair and he found me a pair of black ones with Velcro straps . . . lovely. BUT, we will only wear them while working, right? Right. Then as we walked farther into the store, we came to the women's shoe dept. with the same sale on. I rushed forward to see if there was anything better looking , and there was! I found another pair of black ones, but with laces; and he found some cute white and black ones! (It made me wonder if French women have big feet) But anyway, we both walked out of there happy with our new shoes.
Well, time (and Jack) is pressing me to wrap this up, so hope all is well with you . . . love ya!
Sister Mom, Joanne, Grandma
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