Holiday Time

Hello to All,

This has been a hectic time of the year for missionary work, especially for the two of us since we are trying to take care of all the members, amis, and all the activities that the season brings. We had a good Christmas party at the branch (I will leave that to Joanne to tell), Zone Christmas program in Bordeaux, Zone Conference, cooking goodies for the people here in Angouleme, home evenings, Christmas dinner for the missionaries and others who wished to come, and last but not least the genealogy work that is going on at the branch.

I will start with the Zone Conference and the Christmas program held in Bordeaux. It is interesting how different the mission president and his wife are compared to the Merrell's. This couple decided that the missionaries in each zone should prepare and give a Christmas concert for the members and their amis, so they organized Christmas songs to sing and other musical numbers and events for the missionaries to participate in during the program. Each zone held the program in conjunction with a zone conference. We spent some time in a zone development meeting practicing the program, then we were on our own for further practices. However with all the missionary work and branch happenings, we only got in two short song practices.

The program for the three zones was well attended, however it was hard for members and amis outside of Bordeaux to attend, so Angouleme had no one there. An hour and a half drive was a little much to expect, but we did our part. We have some outstanding missionary talent in the zone and members in the Bordeaux area. The Defrancie family in Bordeaux has a father who is a lead tenor in the Bordeaux opera and the rest of the extended family plays various instruments. One of the daughters is presently at BYU. Well all went well. On the way down, we delivered some Christmas goodies to a family in the branch 24 miles south of Angouleme as we were on the way to Bordeaux. It was a short visit, but the real hope is that they know we care. The only problem was that we didn't get back home until after 11:00 PM, with permission.

The branch Christmas party and program went very well and even though 8 of the people we hoped would come either had family sickness, unexpected visitors, or in the case of one of our amis, had some tragic news about a friend so that he was not in the mood for festivities, we still had 30 people out to the program. Joanne spent a great deal of time preparing the meal and it was great.

Our family home evenings for the singles in the branch are good. Even though we don't have any young singles, we do get together with the older group and one amis, Jean Bourdicheaux. We have a lesson and with Jean there we get questions from him and this gives the members a chance to answer him. We have an activity and goodies after. This week it was a good 4 hands of Uno and a cheese feast with French bread. There was plenty of cheese left over from the Christmas meal and in no time flat the cheese was devoured and enjoyed by all. Jean, the 77-year-old amis, enjoys the friendship and has progressed in his knowledge and faith in Christ and even he can see the tremendous change in his life since he started learning and living the principles of the Gospel.

The Portuguese family, the Corgas, have so much to overcome in their move to France: the language, finding work, a place of their own, and just getting into life. Their 5-year-old has to learn a new language at school and make new friends. It is coming, but the transition is slow and painful. Both Joao and Sandra can speak fairly well in French and Sandra has a good grasp of English, so Joanne and Sandra can get along very well. Coming to church is a new experience for them and especially how to deal with the two children. We are making slow progress, but when we think of the training that went on with each of our own under learned experiences, this is hard for people new to the Church.

The Elders have a young family coming to church. Miguel has great faith and his wife Justine has started to understand better the last few weeks, especially as she attends Relief Society and participates. Miguel is from the north of France and Justine is from Cameroon in Africa and has only been here a few years. They have a sweet new born baby girl and there is a lot of love shown to this baby by their parents and the branch members.

Things are good here. We are finding that there is progress in the branch. Sister Bouchard will be leaving for her mission on Jan 4th, so we have three branch positions to fill. We have prayed and will interview two members for two of the positions, but the piano will remain silent until we can find someone to take up that position. The Elders, the members or Mom and I, with good spiritual direction, will just have to find someone to do that.

We will send a few pictures later so Chris can insert them into our blog page.

Love Elder Dad and Sister Mom