News from France

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