Where Did April and May Go?

Hello to all,

We have been so busy that I can't understand where the months of April and May went, but they are gone and we are way behind in our writing. I feel like the butcher who backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work. We are sorry that we missed a few birthdays, but we promise to catch up.

We are still working with the Corga family, and they are striving to keep the commandments--especially the Word of Wisdom. They both have been smoking for a long time and it has been hard for them to stop. This week, they asked for a priesthood blessing and since that day they have made great progress. They are the best of friends with us and we love them so. Their little 22-month-old girl, Beatrice, calls out frere, frere (brother, brother), when ever she hears my voice, and today they are getting used to sitting fairly quiet in Sacrament meeting.

We are teaching a young woman, Sephora, in her late 20's who has said she has made a mess of her life up until now and wants the direction of the Church in her life. She has a 5-year-old son, Jeremie, who doubles our young primary. We had such a great meeting with Sephora last week and there were some tears of joy shed as we talked about the importance of the Savior in our lives and the special part that Jesus can can play in our future.

The weather has turned hot in the afternoon with clear blue skies. With the good weather, Joanne got the bug to get the yard as it should be. I took out the dead hedge in front. There were six dead plants that made up the hedge with roots that had to be dug up and then severed from the fir hedge plant. It was a two day job. Two of the plants had to be eventually pulled out with a good rope and the car; then new plants put in, and because a 16 foot area was exposed to the neighbors (which is a definite no, no), I put in a bamboo fence with poles painted green like the shrubs. It now looks neat as a pin.

I need to talk about one other thing that is unique here in France and that is the shopping carts. First, to get one you must invest 1 Euro to unlock the cart from all the others outside the stores. You get the Euro back when you return the cart and lock it up with the other carts again. There is a slot in your cart where you place the Euro and the force of the Euro in the slot unhooks the cart.

The carts themselves are different than those in the United States in as much as the two wheels in front and the two in the rear will turn. This make it difficult to steer your cart since you must control four turning wheels instead of just the two in front for you in the States. When the carts get filled, they are unwieldy or, in this case, unwheeldy. The carts need your arm and leg strength to get them to go in the direction you desire. One good thing about the four wheel drive is that if you are standing still and someone is coming at you, it is easier to dart out of the way in any direction at a standing start.

The escalators here have no steps on them when it comes to grocery stores--they are long, flat moving walk ways up and down. The carts can fit on them and the walk ways are grooved as are the cart wheels so that once you get on the walk way the cart wheels fit in the grooves and you stay fixed in the braked position until your front and back wheels hit the pavement again.

Well that's all folks.
Elder Dad

Birds

Hello to all from Angouleme,

We have just gone through a period of rain and now that the sun is out for a few days, Mother Nature has put on he best dress as all is in full bloom. After being in Cokeville for 29 years we really forgot what beauty really can be like. There are so many different flowers here in the yard that at times it boggles the mind at what colors and smells there are here in France. Outside the office window are three trees that are entirely different in size and in shape. I have watched the trees flower and the leaves change as the season has progressed.

As I sit here typing I can also hear a myriad of tunes played by many different birds in the yard. It is so good to hear the blending of the birds calls here so that it sounds like a symphony with all the various instruments playing in harmony. This is a far cry from the crow's caw that was the only ear splitting sound coming from the trees in Cokeville. It is the difference between classical music and heavy metal.

We are enjoying the branch membership so much that I know that leaving here will be a major emotional situation that I am not looking forward to experiencing. We are progressing and the branch is growing. One retired member returned to Angouleme, an English couple contacted us about moving hear in June, and our member who runs a growing construction company just hired a return french missionary. This missionary has a small family of wife and two children, with a new one coming soon.

We are still working with Sandra Corga. She is having a rough time trying to stop smoking and she has asked for a blessing to help her. We will gather the brethren on Sunday for that. Carol is progressing and we have encouraged her to pray. Praying is something new for the people here because they have never had a conversation with their Heavenly Father. Either they only know prayers that are memorized or they have abandoned religion altogether because of the bad reputation it has had in the last 40 years. To get people to realize that they have a Father in Heaven who loves them is a concept as far removed from them as quantum physics is to the average citizen. The public's view of Heavenly Father is also new to them. Someone that is a resurrected glorified being as is taught in the Bible is so strange a concept and so different from that taught by the Nicene Creed that is the present belief and has been for centuries. It is so different yet appealing to those who will listen that they want to pray and have a meaningful conversation with God as James talks about in the Bible, but it takes time for them to grasp the idea.

We are in good health. We have been in good health throughout our mission even with the damp weather here in this part of France. The weather is like that of the Northwest with overall temperature stability without the constant rain. We do have rainy weeks, but in between a 5 day period of rain are weeks of good weather in the 70's and 80's.

We are doing well and the time is flying by. People are telling us that they want to boycott the end of our mission and go on strike so we can't leave. Our hearts are pulled in two by the love we have for these people and the future of seeing family and friends at home.

Love to you all,
Elder Dad

Week of Supreme Service

Hello to you all from Angouleme,

This week was a week of service and for me it was a supreme effort. If you didn't know before, I am not a pet lover, not because I don't like animals, but because they restrict your movement so much. I like to take off when ever the desire hits me and with a pet you are in need of someone to watch over the pet.

Well this last week was our turn to help a family that have a dog, fish, two cats, and a hamster. We thought we lost the hamster one night, but we found him burrowed into the very back of his little home filled with cotton batten. Panic struck with the thought of trying to find him. I don't do well crawling on all fours through the house any more. The dog was the only one who could not be left alone, so Joanne and I decided to keep Booba in our garage. We could feed the rest each night at the home of the family.

The first thing I had to do was build a confined area in a corner of the garage so that this fairly big dog couldn't run wild in the garage. She is a little over a year old and is a strong dog. The 9-year-old boy and 13-year-old, slightly built girl can easily be dragged when the dog is on a leash. This dog is strong enough to take a small child on a wild ride on skis on the packed snow.

Once the enclosure was made, we had the dog delivered on Friday. I spent the rest of the day building up the enclosure so she couldn't get over the barrier and filling in the holes in the walls where she could force her way through. Once that was done we knew we could sleep through the night.

The mornings were something else. Early to rise and out with the leash. With the dog out front and dragging me along, we head out down the street. She would pull me along and then stop all of a sudden to sniff and then off again. I do have admit that she walked and pulled fast enough to get my heart rate up to where I knew I had a good exercise. I am the only person I have seen in France that took some plastic bags to clean up after the dog. After a good brisk walk it was back in the yard. The whole yard is enclosed with a fir type bush that is about five feet high in the front and seven feet high on the sides and back. I have a tennis ball and she does chase after it but has no concept of bringing it back for another throw, so that game was short lived.

When we headed out the door, the dog went into the garage enclosure and, lucky for us, was able to stay put without any noise until we returned. It rained much of the week so she was reluctant to go out in the yard. Once the sun came out she would stay out, but when she got excited, which was often, she would start to dig in the grass. I tried to stop her from doing that but to no avail and in the enclosure she would go.

At the end of the week, she was better and on Saturday she even went into the enclosure without being told to do so. It freaked me out because I couldn't find her in the yard and I couldn't believe she could get out. All of those panic feelings went through my mind. I even thought that someone took her, but I soon got rid of that feeling because they would bring her back after 5 minutes since that is all the time it would take for her to take over their lives.

Today the service project was over and the dog went happily back with her owners without even saying a word of praise for our patience and concern for her. I guess that is true service when you do something without a reward.

Everything is fine here and the time is flying by. We had 27 people out to church today and the Elders were able to bring back a family that had been inactive for close to a year. After the meeting, they said they would be back next Sunday. It is good to see progress, even when it is just a little.

We love you and pray for your well being.
Elder Dad