Oh, What a Beautiful Morning

Hello from France;

We are experiencing some great weather here in Angouleme and we are loving every minute of it. In the last 10 days or so, we have had only one bad day. We have been out in the yard taking care of all the work that was pretty well neglected by Sister Bouchard. The Corga family have been coming over and giving us a hand. We have been digging out all the weeds around the rose bushes, cutting the grass, and getting our little garden area ready for planting.

Two things that I have a hard time with when it comes to France is the pruning the trees and bushes and the grass. Sister Bouchard had Remi Demolombe come over and prune the bushes, roses, and small trees. He, like all other Frenchmen hack away at the bushes and trees until they look like nude sticks, but they seem to always come back in the spring. We will work on Sister Bouchard's dying hedge out front by pruning all the dead branches and then planting some new hedge bushes. The hedges last about 15 years and they get trimmed every fall to keep them square and neat.

The grass here would make an American go around the bend and off the deep end. The French let everything grow in the grass. Just as long as they plant flowers it is allowed to grow in the grass. Once the flower has died it is time to cut the grass. No such thing as getting all the weeds out and grooming your lawn to look like a carpet. The nearest thing to a carpet lawn here is a patchwork quilt.

We spent a great time with our 99-year-old sister, Madeleine Chauveau. Joanne prepared a meal and a birthday cake for us to share with her. Since we had a late meeting in Bordeaux, we brought the Elders with us and she really enjoyed the time spent. I told her that the firemen said it was against fire regulations to put 99 candles on the cake, but she blew out the nine that were on the cake. She is a great sister and has a strong testimony of the Gospel. The members called and sent flowers and even our past 1st counselor from Bordeaux came with his good wife to visit not long after we left.

We had a change in the Stake Presidency here and so we got to go to Bordeaux for Saturday and Sunday meetings. We rented a mini-bus and Joanne took the car because we had so many amis that came with us. I have a to say that Elder Kerr, our regional seventy from Scotland, has become one of my favorite speakers. I love his accent and the powerful messages he gave to all of us. He speaks with authority and power. His testimony rocks the world.

We will have a baptism the 21st of March. Our 78-year-old brother, Jean Bordicheux, is one of a kind. In the 7 months since the Elders met him, he has grown in faith and love. He has changed before our very eyes and he feels the difference in his approach to life. He is someone who thinks things through, prays for guidance and then puts the principles of the Gospel into practice to see how they work in his life. He says that all his practice has been true to the scriptures and the lessons received.

We hope to have all our amis and members there so the amis can feel the spirit and the members to realize that the missionary work is going forward. This is not a church for sissies. It is put up or shut up. I like the scripture where it says that Jesus would rather have us hot, but not lukewarm, for if we are lukewarm, He will spew us from His mouth [Rev. 3:15-16]. We need to recognize that we have made promises and it is up to us to keep the promises made. We often forget those promises and lapse into being lukewarm. It is like the coals of a fire, as long as they are in the mist of the hot burning fire they stay red hot, but once they get away from the heat of the Gospel light they go black. All we need is to be nudged back into the heat of the light of Christ and into active participation and we light up again.

We love you all and we realize that we must do all we can to help others wile we are here. There is still plenty to do on our part and with those we are working with.

Love to you all,

Elder Dad