The Heat Is On

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