Ann-Marie's Baptism & Our Stake Conference Assignment

It's taking us awhile to sort out the ins and outs of our mission this time. I'm now into a routine of weekly expectations...I buy food, I fix food, I serve food, I give left over food to the hungry (I'm talking our Elder and Sister missionaries, including us, here!) because we have no way of knowing how many to fix food for. I can deal with this, even though it is a worrisome problem to unravel in my head each week about what to make. Jack, on the other hand, is at his wits end unless he has someone to teach the gospel to. There is only just so much he can do for me and with me in the kitchen, so he has been wracking his brain for meaningful things to do. Our Peruvian contact came to Sacrament meeting last week, and our missionary minded members welcomed him warmly. He enjoyed what he heard and saw, even though a thoughtless girl in front of us talking to her mother, made it hard to concentrate on the speakers some of the time. I guess that's just life in the big city everywhere, people are people and can't always think past the now in their lives. Anyway, he had a phone call to make to his wife in Peru (a certain time frame to catch) so we sent him on his way with a Spanish Book of Mormon and he promised to read Moroni 10:4.

Jack talked to our bishop about taking some home-teaching families, so we were given two inactive families for a start, and he immediately tried to get in touch with them to set up times to come to visit. Then we got a call from our Stake president to give talks in Stake Conference this weekend...we have a 10 minute slot of time to fill...hmmm. One tenth of that should be just enough for me!

Ann-Marie Edike finally stopped waffling to and fro and set her baptism date for Feb. 24, this weekend, after Jack challenged her to keep up with her two 11 year old daughters in the church. She said she knew that her girls were on the train and it was leaving her behind, so since her mother is here from Africa to visit them, it's a good time for her to witness it also. We went to see her after work on Wed. night, but she hadn't made it home yet, so we dashed across town to the bishop's meeting. Then she called our phone and asked us to return, so we did, and had a wonderful meeting with her. She is a lively, great woman and I like her a lot. She didn't want to be baptized on a Saturday (that's a day for marriages), but Friday sounded like a good baptism day to her! She'd had her Zone leader interview last night, but had two questions she wanted Jack to answer: How can a man in the middle of the desert be baptized without any water around? And, why do we not baptize babies and little children in the church? WOW! All you ex-missionaries out there..just chomping at the bit to answer those concerns aren't ya??!! We had a great discussion about those things and she was touched by the spirit when she read what Moroni had to say about infant baptism. I love the gospel of Christ because the things we KNOW are true we cannot deny, and what we don't yet know we can rely upon our faith in Christ's promises to us that someday all will be known to us. Her baptism was a ward celebration, complete with food afterward and all the trimmings. We also had a Young Adult Activity going on in their room in the church, so after Jack said the closing prayer for the baptism program, I divided half the pan of bar cookies for them and left the rest for the ward repas. It was movie night and once again 17 Miracles made an impact on those who watched it. I'm so glad we brought that movie with us...it was a last minute purchase at Deseret Book before we left Provo last December, and we weren't sure it would show on the dvd's here, but it's been so great...all the girl's were crying through the sad scenes. (I don't know how you would have answered Ann-Marie's man in the desert question, but Jack told her that any good missionary would get that man to the nearest oasis and baptize him in the same manner that Christ had been baptized!)

Stake Conference was to be held in a rented hall where there is a stage for local concerts etc. I was nervous and wondered what I should say in my two or three minutes that anyone would want to hear. I began to write down some things about our call to the Young Adult program and the unity that exists among them and that they are great kids...the things I'm expected to say, I guess. Then Friday night when I got into bed, my mind just seemed to fill with words and I could picture myself speaking them in perfect French, and I wasn't even dreaming yet! I got myself up and wrote down what I could remember then went back to bed for a good night's sleep. I had Jack help me the next day to get the wording right, and we were ready for Sunday. The Saturday night conference for adults began at 2 PM with a choir practice that I wanted to join and that they pulled Jack into joining. He kept protesting that his voice was like a frog's, but the patient brother beside him kept him pretty much in tune as we practiced, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me. It was so fun to sing those favorite songs in French, the words do not match at all...but, the essence of the ideas expressed are there. We didn't get home until past 9 PM, and you just see what membership is like here, it is your world. On Sunday morning as we walked into the hall, a brother came to me and asked if I needed a translator to help me with my talk. How tempting! I told him, 'No, I am going to tough it out in French, and hope they understand me." President Poznanski and his wife were the main speakers, and there was a wonderful young women's choir that sang also. My turn came and under some very bright lights I told the audience that, 'When we used to go on vacations with our family we always found a church to go to on Sundays, and that I always felt at home there. WHY? Because the spirit of the members is the same everywhere. I told them that is why I love being with them here in France, even though I miss my family, now I have a family here. With the Church of Jesus Christ the members are my family; the spirit of the members is the same! I then told them what I thought was the main reason that I love Jesus Christ. It is that he keeps his promises to us. I listed some main ones he kept : a world on which to live, our agency to choose, guidance by prophets, his help to return us back to our Father in Heaven, to come to earth and live a sinless life, to Atone for our sins, to visit his other sheep in the world, and to reestablish his gospel in its fullness on the earth in these latter days. All these promises and so many more Christ kept for his Father and for us. That is why I love, and have confidence in my Savior, Jesus Christ.' Jack got up and had them chuckling first thing by saying, 'As you can see I'm getting very old, in the U.S. we have a saying, that I have one foot in the grave and the other foot is sliding on a banana peel ! Where is our leadership in the church going to come from? It will come from the young adults, and that is why this program is so important. Relief Society sisters need to embrace the young women into activity, and the priesthood brothers need to do the same for the young men. We come from a small town in Wyoming of 500 persons and 100 thousand cows. But there are two wards in this town with a tradition of sending out many missionaries. You too have begun a tradition of sending out missionaries with 6 in the field right now and one more, Virginie, next month, and Pierre-Louis not long after. Then who will come next?' He then bore his testimony and we were done...big sigh of relief!

That's missionary work…something new all the time...it's so great!

Love you all,

Joanne