I've never looked forward to a General Conference as I did this one, and I was not disappointed. We traveled to Perigouex on Saturday to be able to watch the morning session at 6 P.M. that night. We had the two Elders from Angouleme with us, and Jack actu
ally let Elder Clyde do the driving since he is to be sent to Marsaille today--in fact he's on the train right now. He and his companion walked or rode the bus here, but there he will drive a mission car, so the President asked Jack to teach him to parallel park (a must), and Jack threw in the bonus driving to get him used to the car. We had time to stop on the way at a special tourist attraction, a town called Brantome. It has a grotto (which we didn't see), and a huge church built practically into the rock face of some cliffs, where two rivers flow together and make a beautiful setting. We took pictures there, as well as at a marvelous chateau built on top of a sky-high sheer rock mountain, so you can see that we can't go far without having our heads completely turned by something great to look at!Sunday morning we were on the road to Perigouex again, sadly without the two members who expressed great interest in going with us, but just couldn't make the final commitment needed to make it happen. We were at Abdel Soumahoro's apt. two nights before when he asked his parents if he could go with us, and they said, yes. His mother, who runs an Africa Only shop in town, was sorting through some cellophane packages. She wears an ever-present tiny phone in her ear, with its blue light flickering, and seems like a shrewd business woman. "Soeur", she said to me, "We have these beautiful new items just in from Africa, I'll show you." She started opening them, and showed me a long, satin, brightly colored . . . what? Sash? Neck piece? Hair wrap? She pantomimed all three as she whipped this long piece of fabric around, its pointed triangles (sewn lengthwise up and down) bouncing and flashing brightly! She unwrapped it off her closely cropped head, and tossed it to me, "Only 7 Euro!" she sang out! Jack came over, and I said, "Do you want ME to get one of these?" He nodded yes, so I threw the royal blue one around my neck and smiled that I liked that one! "Good choice!" she claimed! (OK, so we're suckers, BUT I bet I get more mileage out of my purchase from her than he did when we were at her store, and the only thing he could find to buy was peanut butter in a can. It was a deep brown color, and swam in oil . . . he gamely mixed and mixed and tried the stuff . . . and then I disappeared it a couple of days later, before he killed himself!) So, we got home and I tried on my authentic African whatsit, and found a tag that said, "Made in China". Hmmmmm. Maybe it was made by the Africans living in China? Maybe they work cheap too?
Anyway, conference was great. They set us up in an upstairs classroom with a TV set to the English channel. I had watched a little of the French translation downstairs in the chapel, but it was hard to hear a voice over the voices you know and love. They don't get the emotion and feelings of the words being expressed, and that made me sad, but they seemed to like it just fine. I wanted most to hear President Monson speak, and was so glad when at last he did, and spoke with power and conviction. I know he is God's prophet on earth today, and that we must follow his leadership and inspiration to stay on the path to return to our Heavenly Home. I know that God lives, and loves every one of his children, and that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.
I love you all.
Sister Mom (Joanne/Granma)
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