Moments to Remember

Bonjour!

I hear you are on daylight savings now, but we won't be until the end of the month (I think). I'm looking out the back window at the blooming yellow, white and pink blossomed bushes and trees, and I like it! It's trying to be spring around here, but it is still cold and cloudy, and hovering in the 40's temperature wise, so I'm not officially 'crowing' about all this yet. I made crepes in my new pan this morning, and they turned out just right. Sister Bouchard's 3 pans are all too clunky and heavy for me, so I went out and found one that I could handle, lightweight with a nice round bottom and high sides. That for breakfast, and the fact that he had a good night's sleep, got Jack's day started off right. He spent the morning helping the Corga's with their car problems, and said that Joao finally realized that his prayers for help WERE being answered by Heavenly Father. "Can He come down to earth and help you Himself?" Jack asked him. "Well, no, He doesn't do that!" "Then, how does he help you?" "He helps us by sending you and your wife to us!" blurted out Sandra! They looked at each other, and knew it was true, and that was a breakthrough moment.

I've mentioned Sister Trillaud (tree-oh) before, she is the home bound member whose heart problems have caused her body to swell up with retained water to monumental proportions. Even though she must weigh close to 400 pounds, she can get around fairly well, but cannot get too far from her oxygen tank. We visited her with the Elders to give her the sacrament, and had a testimony sharing meeting with her that was wonderful. When her turn came, she told what the gospel means to her, and how she knows she can't make it to the temple, but that it comforts her to know that she could hold a recommend. It's what Jack told her last week, and she's been pondering the idea since then, so he set up a meeting with her the following Thursday. When that day arrived, I sat in her kitchen reading while he interviewed her in the living room, and everything went smoothly until they came to tithing. It would be $54 a month, and she says everything is such a tight squeeze all ready (her oxygen unit sucks up electricity madly), she doesn't know how she could possibly do it. They went over her expenses, and it would not be easy, so he asked her to pray about it, and they will talk about it again soon. As we left, I found out that we and the Elders had been invited to lunch with her the next day, (Yikes! she doesn't need to feed us - that would be money saved right there!) and she asked if we would bring her some parsley from the store.

In the evening, on our way to genealogy, we stopped by her apt. with the nice bunch of french parsley we got for her, and I jumped out of the car to take it in. I pushed her ringer button and rehearsed a few words to dazzle her with; and heard the door unlock. I pulled on the door, but the dumb thing wouldn't open, so I kept on pulling (mumbling under my breath), all the while getting more and more frustrated. I heard her high pitched voice calling to me, but I couldn't understand any of it! "Pousser, pousser!" she shouted, as I continued to pull and pull, and I could have cried as I watched her heave herself down those stairs little by little, until we were face to face through the glass, and she opened the door, that just needed a little PUSH. (Another singular 'senior' moment in my life). I lowered my head in despair, and she lowered hers, and our foreheads met; I said, 'sorry', and she was gracious and kind and smiled that all was well.

The next day at lunch, she told us that as a young married woman with two children, she and her husband lived in Paris, and were very happy together. He was a postal worker, and all was well until he "allowed" his mother to make job changes for him, and they moved down here to where she lived. They began to argue and fight, and then they split up and were divorced. She became suicidal, once overdosing on pills and waking up a week later in a hospital, and one time leaping from the top of a 6 floor building, and only fracturing her arm! But, it was here in this area, where she came into contact with members of the church, and now at least she has the gospel. The food was too much, as usual, but it means something to her to reciprocate a little of what she feels she receives, so we ate! For dessert, she brought out 2 (two!) identical timisu cream cakes (a first for all of us), which have a thin layer of cake topped with cream, whipped firm, and sprinkled with cocoa. We each had a piece, but the other one was untouched, so she insisted that we take it and share it between us. As we cleaned up in the kitchen, Elder Gunter checked the package label, and the thing had some coffee and some alcohol listed in the ingredients . . . oops! I'm sure she had no idea about that stuff, so we had to repent that night and try to stop our misbehaving ways! When we picked up Sandra later for her daughter's eye appointment, Jack saw a busy street worker, so he got out of the car and took the 2nd timisu over to him, "For all your hard work!" The surprised man thanked him, and now has a story to tell about the moment that he was thanked for being a street sweeper.

Well, that's all for now, you take care of yourselves until we see you again.

Love, Sister Mom (Joanne)

Fun Times

Bonjour to everyone -

I miss you guys, and hope you are all well, and that your days are filled with joy in your lives, and happiness for those you love. It's so good to hear from you in letters, email and the occasional phone call, and we thank you for taking time for us.

We seem to be sliding into Spring, and actually got out into the yard and (with Bro. Demolombe's help) got things more ship-shape around here. We were instructed to call him for the rose pruning ritual, and then, with a pair of clippers in his hands, he was virtually unstoppable (the French love to clip and chop and train their vegetation!). But, don't think our surroundings have been a dull brown or gray all winter long; things here stay amazingly green the whole year around.

We had a great fast Sunday this week, because Kola (the Nigerian man whom we have been sitting in the teaching of with the Elders) actually came to church with his wife, and their 3 (well-behaved) children, just like he promised he would. He and Chantal are as alike in manner and looks as two peas from the same pod, and she is very intelligent and nice. They are beginning to drink in the Gospel, and grow in their understanding of how the Book of Mormon is a second witness of Jesus Christ, and tells about God and His plan for us. They had the notion that WE were prophets because we were out and about preaching about God; so it's interesting to find out where people are in their heads, and their experiences, and to begin to teach them correct principles. She also took a giant leap forward when she was sick in bed last week, and decided to seriously read the Book of Mormon this time; and said that she felt the Spirit, and was anxious to learn more. We are feeling more at ease with one another in their home, and when he called on "our mother" to give a prayer, I had to smile about my new title. Have you ever sat through the blessing and passing part of a Sacrament meeting that only took 3 minutes from start to finish? That leaves an awful big chunk of time to fill for testimony bearing, and very few members to draw from; but, as always, with the prompting of the Spirit, things worked out just fine and the time was soon gone. Afterward, what made us happiest, was that Chantal said that she would be coming every Sunday from now on, even though her husband will be working in England for a month.

As for me, I was all ready to give my long awaited debut lesson on "I Am A Child Of God," and, once again, no one showed up for Primary. (However, that could change now that Chantal knows what church is all about!) Last week, I did have eight-year-old Clement, and we read 1Nephi 12, about the interpretation of Lehi's dream. We then spent time creating a mural of the dream in full living color, that he seemed quite pleased with. I could tell, because he kept it "straight," without his usual skull and cross-bones, or long-bodied creature-men that he likes to put on his papers. Later, after we had fed the Elders and Bro. Bourdicheux, a man wearing army fatigues walked down the hall, and the Elders recognized him as the Armenian political refugee who had hailed them on the street and asked if they were the Mormons? We invited him to stay for dessert, and the Elders showed him the First Vision video (in Russian) since he really knows nothing about the church. He's brand new in France, and is probably lonely for one thing, but he wants us to "teach" him English (he has a smattering right now), so we will gather together for that with the Elders on Thursday, and see where it goes.

Our new P-day is on Monday, and we decided to go to the newest circus to hit town because neither of us has been to one in at least 40 years! The tents are huge and brilliantly colored, and lots of people were streaming toward the entrance, probably between 6 and 700 at least. There was one center ring, with a loud band situated up high off the floor, over the opening where the performers would be coming in. The atmosphere was all dark, bright, misty, and loud, with the hum of the voices of excited children filling the air. (I was just as wide-eyed as any of them--my 2nd childhood coming on!)

It started out with 2 men in 2 separate man-sized cylinders that swung in a wide arch, over and over, and they kept their balance both inside the 24 inch wide base, and on top of it! Then came 2 Bali girls who about turned themselves inside out; it hurt to watch them! Next 3 white horses ran around the ring, along with 3 mini-ponies that were small enough to run under the horses bellies! Then came a troop of Chinese acrobats with a hoops act! Then a blond woman, working magic hanging and twirling from long lengths of material in a dazzling outfit! Next, out came the 2 elephants, with their simple tricks, and then it was intermission, where (for 5 Euros) children could get rides on their backs. We figured they made at least 200 Euros extra by getting 5 on each animal for a quick tour of the ring. The lead elephant was clever, and swept its trunk out over the front row seats as it passed by, and snatched up someones whole blob of white cotton candy and had it stuffed into its mouth in the blink of an eye.

The second half started with 6 angry looking tigers in their nice large cage! Then, the Chinese acrobats came back with a bungee jumping act from up high this time! Then in roared a tiny brightly lit train, with two box cars that were full of little dogs that were so fun to watch; and ended with 30 dogs in all! There was a comedy team of clowns that was very good and the one I really enjoyed was the quick change artists. It was a couple in fancy clothes, and she would step into flat looking hoops and he would pull up a column of material over her head, and 2 seconds later, Voila! a brand new costume! The best was last when he poured out a bucket of large pieces of sparkling gold confetti over her head, and by the time it hit the ground, she was in a sparkly golden dress to match! I guess you can tell that I loved every minute of the circus!

Take good care of yourselves!

Love, Sister Mom Joanne

What Would We Do Without People?

Bonjour everyone,

It's the end our our Sunday, and we are, as usual, drained of our emotions. We never know who will come, or what kind of drama might unfold this time. Last week, the Primary was 'hit' by the unexpected arrival of 4 out-of-town children, (because of Stake visitors for Branch Conference) plus 2 from Angouleme; the room was full, and I was in shock. Thank goodness for our new Elder Gunter, from North Carolina, who saw my anguished looking face and recognized my plight. He came in with me and stood by my side, and helped get me through the situation in one piece. Funny enough, I had made extra hand outs, so there were just enough for every child to have one (talk about tender mercies)! This week, I sat alone in the Primary room, with a lesson for our 5-year-old, and/or a lesson for our 8-year-old, and nobody came until 70 minutes later. Eight year old Clement had a good excuse for being late, since his hamster had escaped, and they needed to find it, before their cats or their dog did. All we really had time for was a Book of Mormon crossword puzzle (that three weeks ago he claimed was too hard!); this time I put the jumbled up answers on the board for him, and he enjoyed it. I'm learning as I go too, you see!

It looks like we have a real live baptism coming up in April...it's our 78-year-old Monsieur Bourdichoux, who fits right into the average age range of our Branch! He really looks up to Jack, and listens to him intently, and calls him "Mon Pere Spirituel", as well as his frere, 'Monsieur Jacques'! We have loved seeing him grow and develop in the light of the gospel day after day, and he has come a long way. He had friends who told him "not to go to the Mormon church, whatever you do!", but instead of scaring him off, it made him curious, because he was impressed with the Elders he had met. So he started coming to our Family Home Evenings, and found out that we are regular people just like him, who have something he needs in his life. He watched us very closely at first for signs of our flaws, and one memorable night came quite unglued at what he took as total rudeness on the part of our upstairs friend, Chantal Walter. She was waylayed by Elder Gibbs as she entered the chapel for FHE, so he could tell her it was his last night before his transfer. Then, I motioned her over to show her the letter we'd just received from Sister Bouchard, so she took time to read it, and write down the return address. By then, JJ was calling us to order for the song and prayer, so we did that, and all the time Mr. B was sitting there, fuming at her, and we didn't know it. As Elder Green began his lesson, Mr. Bourdichoux broke in and railed at her for not saying Bonjour to him, and for completely ignoring him! He told her she was a terrible woman, and was totally rude. We were all stunned. She began to apologize, and tried to explain that it wasn't intentional; and he said that he'd NOT accept her apology because it was very intentional! Everyone took turns trying to defuse the tension, but he just seemed to get madder. Elder Gibbs told a story on himself about how 'our' perception of things can be completely different than someone else's, so we need to be open to the spirit of forgiveness. But the stubborn Mr. B wouldn't give it up, and he crossed his arms and pouted that this would be the last Monday meeting for him! Finally, Elder Green called us all to order, saying that the Spirit had fled because of the contention in the room. He took control, and went to the scriptures: 3Nephi 11:29..."he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another." V. 30..."Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away." He then said, 'We all love one another here, and we are all brothers and sisters as well, and we must behave as such.' A calmness began to return and Mr. B. seemed chagrined and we regrouped. Jack and I went into the kitchen later with Chantal, and we all blew out our collective breaths! She really impressed us by acting like a true Latter-Day-Saint should, not taking offense from a very unfair attack, and trying to make amends for any perceived slight or unhappiness that she unwittingly caused someone.

Any hard feelings were under control as we sat together in the kitchen, on this cold winter's night, dipping our croissants into our cups of hot chocolate...Yum. A humorous postscript to this story is: after Mr. B. set his baptism date, he asked the Elders if he'd be wearing something when he went down into the water? 'Oh, yes', they replied, 'You'll be all dressed in white.' 'That's good', he said, 'because I wouldn't want THAT woman to see me naked!' (Still harboring rankled feelings of being snubbed by Chantal Walter...hmmmmmm...I think he secretly likes her.

We were invited to lunch with Sister Trillaud, a home-bound member of the church, with a heart condition so bad that her lower limbs are swollen with fluid, and she has a hard time getting around. I have difficulty being 'waited' on by her, because I feel like we should be doing her bidding, and bringing her dinners; but she seems to need to render this service to the missionaries. Eating at her table is always an experience. This time she started us out with her homemade wild boar pate (looks like cold meatloaf), and those wonderful French (albino) white, floppy asparagus that she told us are grown in sand. No wonder they are colorless...but at least they are tasteless too, so even Jack could stand to down a few! Next, she made us each a 'Croque-Monsieur' (which is basically a fried ham & cheese sandwich), and then for the main course, she went all out with milk-fed veal stew, served on rice. After our course of cheeses and baguette, we were served a very nice apple (pomme) tart, that she made for us and can't even eat a piece herself. The least we can do for all that, is leave her with a clean kitchen, and so we do. This lady has had a hard life, and her health problems are monumental, but I love visiting her because of her fierce spirit, and her strong testimony. The spiritual thoughts the Elders bring are to buoy her up in her afflictions, and I believe her when she declares that she would be at church if she could. Her life inspires me to be thankful for all that I have been given, and not take it lightly.

We are doing well, except that the dampness is getting to Jack this winter, and he complains of having cold ankles. Rain, rain and more rain, is an all together different experience for us, and I can see why there is a lot of bright green moss growing everywhere you look....we better not stand still too long in one place, or it might start growing on us too!

I love life, even when it's hard, it's worth it. I love you all also.....take care!

Sister Mom (Joanne)

Never Thought

Hello to all at home,

We have had a great week and feel very blessed to be here in France. The Elders are teaching a 78-year-old man, Jean Bourdicheux, and he has set his baptism date for April 6th. He has come a long way from someone who had no faith or little knowledge of Jesus, to now be one who has joy in the blessings of the Gospel and in the Atonement of Christ. He has poor health and thought that it was too late to come to Christ, but now looks forward to his meetings with the Elders and coming to church with his brothers and sisters. It is a blessing for me to pick him up in the car and talk with him to and from church. He always has questions for me and calls me his, pere spiritual, spiritual father. We have found a real brotherhood together and he no longer feels alone in the world. He loves the light of Christ and it has been a pleasure to see him make progress in his life and to watch him strive to be a good disciple of Christ.

We never in our wildest dreams knew what was to be our role in the mission field, and I never had any clue that we would end up in the same city for our entire mission. I never visioned being the branch president, but the blessings of working with faithful members of the Lord's kingdom has been a joy beyond measure. I must admit that it has not been easy and the problems have not been simple, but without the chance to be here all our time we would have not been able to make the progress that has come little by little with the help of the Spirit.

Joanne has seen the wisdom of having eight children as she now feeds the masses. Every third Sunday we have a branch meal after Sacrament meeting and all that practice has come in very handy. I help as the sous chef, chef's helper, as I peel apples for the huge pies she makes and peel carrots and potatoes for the dishes that she prepares. Each Sunday we feed the Elders and the bachelors of the branch and she takes Saturday to get something scrumptious ready. The Elders throughout the mission know all about Joanne because as the missionaries leave here they carry the news of the blessing of being in Angouleme because of Joanne's touch of home in the meals and especially the deserts she prepares. We also get lunch ready for district meeting every two weeks in Bordeaux. It is cheaper and quicker to have something for the 6 elders than to go out and get pizza or Kebabs or head to a restaurant before coming home. The touch of home cooking makes many of the missionaries want to be in the Bordeaux district.

It is a joy to see Joanne pray in French as the members and amis want to feel her spirit. She reads scriptures in French as we share spiritual thoughts with all we meet and we sing the hymns in French every chance we get. I love to try to sing the hymns in French with Joanne. I enjoy watching her as she struggles to communicate with members and amis. It has not been easy for her, but the spirit and love she shows makes up for the lack of words spoken. When Joanne gives suggestions for members and amis, it is always what is needed. I might be the mouth piece, but she is the spiritual guide in many cases and her direction come from the Lord.

I love the work and although it is hard, I know that if we had not come here, we would not know the Saints of France and would have not known so many great missionaries. District meetings and Zone Conferences give us a chance to be with the Lord's finest young brothers and sisters. Some of these missionaries come from Europe. We have seven elders and one sister in our zone that are from Europe and the other zones have more than we do. Elders from Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, and France and one sister from France. They are among the spiritual giants of the mission. The church is growing in Europe with solid saints.

We had the opportunity to go to a Zone Conference last Friday in Bordeaux and then since we are a couple missionary team and a part of the branch presidency, we stayed for the Valentine Dance at the Stake center. We had hopes that more of the branch would come as they had planned, but Alain Kaus came and we enjoyed the evening with him and the others of the stake that came. We were able to dance because the rules for couple are not the same as the Elders and the Sister Missionaries. It was great to see the members get together in good fun and we even got Alain out on the floor to dance. Alain is special and he is working on getting ready to go to the temple. When he is ready, we will have another blessing as we will be able to rent another car and go together with him to the temple in Madrid. I have loved many of you I have met back home, but when you struggle and grow with these people there is a special bond that binds us fast in the Lord that is not always the case at home.

We love you all and ask that our members and amis be in your daily prayers.

Much love,

Elder Dad

Stuff Happens

Bonjour to all of you this bright February day! (January was not fast, but it's gone all ready, so it sure wasn't exactly slow either!) I'm taking one day at a time, and life here is full of funny stuff, sad stuff, weird stuff, exasperating stuff, spiritual stuff, and very memorable stuff too.

Our town was nicked by the hurricane force winds that hit the coast of France last weekend, so we stayed home and Jack brought the lawn furniture in to keep it from settling in someone else's yard. At church the next day, the heat had been knocked out by a flooded basement and it was freezing in the building. Twelve hardy souls braved the first two meetings, but several more showed up for Sacrament meeting, including a giant of a man named Kola, from Togo, who has what looks like tribal markings carved onto his smiling cheeks. He loves what he is hearing at church and from the missionaries, and says he wants to be baptized. He has a wife and 3 children, but so far they haven't come to church with him. The Corga's have an active, Portuguese speaking 5-year-old son, but they are sometimes quite late for church; then Clement (Veronique's 8 year old son, who is not yet baptized) comes sometimes, and his assignment has been to read the Book of Mormon along with me.

This past week, Jack bumped into Kola in town, and he's getting ready to move to England to take a job there. He said that he was coming to church this Sunday and bringing his family with him. Yikes! I AM the Primary. Yep, it's come to that in this branch, what with the ever-present Primary lady, 67-year-old Lucienne, deciding to divorce her husband and leave town until things cool down (is there something in the water here that makes people crazy?). At least with her, she could speak to the kids in their language, and hold them on her lap, and coo and kiss them to pieces, and call it good. The only other women here now are 78-year-old Sis. Demolombe, who can't see well, and is unsteady on her feet; and Marie-Christine, our sole Relief Society teacher, who at 56 is relatively young, but only comes when she is not depressed (and she's very depressed since Sister Bouchard left!). Then there is 38-year-old Veronique, who only seems to come to plague her ex-husband, and always manages to cause a scene, being not afraid to shout at him in the chapel in front of our investigators. Nope, as you can plainly see, I am it, and I had to gird up my loins and go figure out how to get a Primary ready for Sunday. The best place to start has got to be at the beginning, with 'I Am A Child Of God', because that is what they need to know. So, with Jack's translating help with the French manual, I worked on the lesson, and with the ideas that came to me each night.

Sunday came and in walked two little visitors from out of town, Bro. Savreaux's grandchildren, who are active in the church. We waited a bit, but no one else showed up! Unbelievable! Eva, age 7 (a helper type), and her rascally but cute little brother Julien, age 4, would have been such good role models for children untutored in church decorum. They sat expectantly in their chairs while I gathered my wits, and we finally got a fun lesson going based on the Plan of Salvation, using Sis. B's pouch-like wash cloths. We drew our faces on paper and cut them out, and taped them to the pouches; then I explained to them that our spirits (hands) had lived in the Spirit world with Heavenly Father until time to come to earth to get our body (our very own puppet-pouch-person slipped over our hand) and live and be happy until we die (leaving puppet-pouch-person behind) and return to be with Heavenly Father in our Spirit again. They were so cute, and fascinated with my Frenglaise mixture of talking with them (they helped me a lot, and we figured out stuff as we went along), plus drawing on the board is magical and a very practical and neat way to keep things moving too. We sang along to the Primary CD's and colored the blown up big pictures that illustrated the 1st verse of "I Am A Child Of God," and got through the first hour. The second hour we did collages with colored paper pieces and glue sticks (I'm afraid Julien ate half of his stick - ick!), and ended up doing floor puzzles; so now I know they need more stories and stuff like that to fill the time better, for the next group I get. But, I feel good that at least I got a dress rehearsal under my belt, how many times does that happen? Church is always an adventure and we feel absolutely drained at the end of our Sundays, but what a way to go!

Don't take life, or love, or the gospel for granted . . . Make the most of your time on earth, you'll be glad you did.

Love you much, Sister Mom (Joanne) Gran'ma

Busy

Hello to all,

I have learned one thing by living in Angouleme and that is that I am not going to move to Oregon or Washington any time soon. The weather here is very similar to that of the Northwest and I have found that although it is not cold here, I can't take a continued week or more of rain. We are in a situation here where there is some flooding in the very lowest areas of the Charante because the earth is saturated. We did have 4 days of partly sunny weather and it was a welcome sight, but we have gone back into the rainy days again. It is not so much the rain but the dreary sky. I can see why people can get depressed without the sun coming out and warming the day as well as the heart.

We had the four days of the comic book festival in Angouleme and the streets are safe to travel again. Every year at this time Angouleme, the home of some of the original comic figures in France and even in Europe, puts on a 4 day festival for up and coming designers of comic book characters and future video producers. It is very well attended and the city makes a good piece of change hosting the affair. There are a few schools in Angouleme that are noted for their technology in the visual arts.

We had some changes in the branch with the departure of Sister Bouchard to her mission call in Salt Lake City and the Family Research Mission. She did so many things in the branch that it took a while to call people to replace her, but last Sunday many of these people gave strong testimony to the new callings they have and how it has helped them grow and develop. We look forward to even more progress as we put the branch on a footing so that when we leave we will not be missed and the branch will function well without us.

Joanne is having a Sunday experience since she is right now the only primary worker. We have one boy in the primary and some times some visitors, but she never knows what to expect. She tries to tailor her lessons for a wide range of situations. Joanne never knows who will show up and with her limited French she also is concerned with how she will be understood or how she will get the point across. We go over quite a bit of translations before every Sunday.

I think the hardest thing that happens is that we are limited in the words that the average Frenchman knows to express everyday ideas. There is such a difference between teaching the lessons that need to be learned before baptism because we are more conversant with the Gospel language. There are more helps for us as we use "Preach My Gospel" and the scriptures. When it comes down to trying to get across everyday ideas, we get many things lost in translation. In the U.S., we have sayings that are similar to the French, but they translate straight across, so we find ourselves at a loss for words on the simplest ideas. I also get a thought going and then have to pause often as I struggle to continue the line of thought through to its conclusion. This the reason I would like to leave the mission field with the church responsibilities in the hands of the French members. If there is a reason to build the branch, that is the main one.

We have had a very different experience in visiting our 98-year-old member. She feels that she is definitely coming to the end of her days and we are talking a great deal about how the scriptures and the leaders of the church talk about the life after this existence. The last few times with Madeline, we discussed things that she needed to think about that needed to be completed before she leaves this frail existence. We were prompted to go to her genealogy and check out what had been done. When I entered her names into the "New Family Search," we found that the married couples had all their temple work done except the sealing together of husband and wife. She was excited to know that these sealings could be done by someone else on their behalf so that these couple could have the choice to accept or reject the work done for them. We will meet with her again this week to see if there is any thing else we can do for her.

We have a hard time when there is a change in missionaries in Angouleme. We get to have these missionaries a little longer than most because of the small size of the branch and the need for them to stay and get to know and work with the members. Our last Elder stayed for 5 months and entered the mission as a greenie and just left. We have had two missionaries finish their missions here since we have been here and we get very attached to them. It is tough to wrap your arms around them and say goodbye. Joanne is famous throughout the mission for her Sunday meals for the missionaries and we have found that on district meetings it is cheaper and quicker to fix a noon meal for the district then to go out to eat with our two missionaries or the ones that come to Angouleme on an exchange before coming back to our city. The whole district looks forward to see what the treat will be. The new missionary let us know that the missionaries all over the mission know about her cooking and he said he wasn't disappointed to hear he was coming here and enjoying a good Sunday American meal.

Well, that's all from this side of the world.

Love, Elder Dad

Pictures of the New House

Front View









Queen's Chair









Living Room









Kitchen









Office









Our Bedroom












Sewing & Washroom









Upstairs Bathroom

New House, Etc.

Hello to one and all. It has been a while since I have got in touch with all of you, but we have been so busy with the holidays and keeping in touch with all the members and friends of the church.

The one thing about being in a leadership position is that each Sunday brings a host of new situations. We have had our teachers not show up due to work or sickness and no one knew about the situation. I have learned to improvise and many times have been inspired to start by opening my mouth and the words and the lesson comes forth. We have had many people not come for talks during sacrament meeting, especially those from out of town. I have learned to keep a talk handy at all times. Once I announced a "popcorn" meeting where the members would get up and discuss a topic given by the presiding officer who was directing. All in all, we have had some very exciting meetings with excellent testimonies and related material to inspire us to a better week ahead. There are always problems to deal with, blessings to give, calls to make, and people to set apart.

I have two great men to be my counselors and we get along like peas in a pod even though the peas are different shapes and sizes. Brother Jean-Marie Savreux (1st) is the one who is always organized and has handouts and charts to keep us on track. Patrick Humblot (2nd) knows the members and is always ready to give great advice on how to deal with each person according to past situations and his caring attitude about what he has prayed about. I keep the meeting moving so we don't get bogged down in French details that some how creep in and threaten to make the meeting last more than an hour. We are willing to give and take and when a answer isn't forth coming right away, we are willing to take time in the next week to ask for heavenly guidance. Many times during the meetings, we are speaking about the same idea or person at the same instant. What a great feeling.

We are working with a great team of Elders. Elder Green and Elder Gibbs are very hard working and spend endless hours seeking, teaching, and caring for those who they meet. We have a small branch, but many members are very willing to go out a teach with the missionaries. Their presence, experiences, and language skills help in every way.

The Elders are teaching a 78-year-old man, Jean Bordicheaux, and he is a very wonderful person. He is progressing in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he wants to do everything right and even more than is required. We had and experience with him the other night. Due to his flu and vertigo, he collapsed in his apartment. We could see him, but the doors were locked so we couldn't get in to help him. He was able to slide on his back and barely reach the door handle so we could get to him. We had called the fireman and they would have smashed a window to get to him had he not used all his force to open the door. The Elders did a two mile dash to get to him after he called them on their cell phone and Patrick and I came in the car as we were returning from our presidency meeting out of town at the 1st counselor's home. We had the four of us, 4 fireman, 4 EMTs, and 4 policemen in his small apartment. The EMTs were very helpful. After they got Jean stabilized, we stayed another half hour to feed him and get everything in order.

We are working with our Portuguese family and if it wasn't for all of the problems of life that keep coming up, we would be much further ahead. They finally left Joao's father's house because when his brother gets drunk he threatens the children. Finally he hit the children and Sandra and Joao got hold of the social services and they were placed in a hotel until an apartment can be found. We will find out tomorrow what has taken place. The members are collecting furniture for them so that when they move they will have some things. We will go to a second hand store for the rest of the essentials. Sandra has a strong testimony and as soon as all is well, we will have her husband baptise her.

Sandra is very special. She is a self starter and when she sees things to be done she pitches right in. At the branch meal last Sunday, she got right in with Joanne and helped get the salads ready and the food on the table. She is just what we need in the branch. Her eyes shine with the light of the Spirit and she wants to bear her testimony the next opportunity. Joao is progressing and should be ready to be ordained to the office of a priest before the baptism date.

We have moved into our new home. It is much bigger and we feel right at home. Our rent money will help out Sister Bouchard with her mission costs and we are getting more than our moneys worth. I will have some yard work in the spring that will help me have a good diversion. Instead of the 3 rooms and bathroom in the other place, we have 6 rooms here and two bathrooms. We have room for visitors if any of you care to come and stay. We will use the house with Sandra, Laraine and Heather when they come to visit the area.

All is well. We are healthy and enjoying the work. To give of one's self is a great rewarding part of life. We now have a blog that Chris is taking care of and if we get him more pictures you will see us in action. If anyone back home wants to read old and new letters they can go to Tour de Metcalfe, or you can get to it through philipandjaimeconnor.blogspot.com.

Well, keep looking up so you can always see where you are going.

Elder Dad

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

Christmas Party

Bonjour to all of you, and to our friends! It's the day after Christmas here and I'm sure you all had a wonderful time with your families yesterday. At home it usually took me a while to wind down after the big day finally arrived, and that hasn't changed. The build up and the anticipation seem to keep me flying high on adrenalin enough to get through it all somehow.

Our Christmas party grew to such huge proportions in our minds (with all those who showed interest in coming) that Jack said to plan for 40 people. So, Patrick Humblot (drop the H, and cross off the T for the real pronunciation of his name!) assigned out the salads to the members (bring one for each table of 6 people!), and the "pain" (bread!) to the single men to furnish (after all what could be easier than that!). I spent most of Friday making funeral potatoes (we don't advertise that name to our elderly members!), until I had 4 large pans filled to the top with cheesy, gooey spuds.

The next morning, we went shopping for last minute things like: 6 bottles of fizzy non-alcoholic apple juice to drink along with dessert; 6 bottles of mineral water and 2 cans of the fruit flavored syrup the French serve with it; and just for insurance, a $3.50E pkg. of TEN 3-foot long baguettes that I've always wanted to buy just once, because they make it look like you're going to a party. The thing was, we weren't sure if JJ (our almost there janitor) got the message through his head about the bread, and Alain's thought process is so unorthodox we never know what we'll get from him. As Jack and I looked at each other in the store. . ."We're getting insurance baguettes!" We hid them in the trunk of the car so we wouldn't hurt their feelings if they brought some too.

Two ladies promised to come early to help me, but neither of them showed, so it was Jack and Patrick and me. We worked together well. We covered the tables with pretty red and gold paper that had a nice satin finish on it, and Jack set them with the salad plates and silverware, while I created centerpieces with greenery off the trees outside and some ribbon and red shiny bulbs. Patrick did a neat trick with the red napkins standing up in the glasses. I popped the turkey rolls in the "oven from h*ll" (which just can't wait to burn everything you dare to place into it), and hoped I guessed right on the setting this time. It's a convection oven, but it's 40-years-old and very cranky, and if you fiddle with it too much, the next time you look it will have turned itself off! That happened this time too, so after my primal scream, I turned it off and started over again, and it seemed to stabilize.

Patrick left for the half hour drive to pick up 98-year-old Madeleine, and Jack went to pick up Adele, who we got to agree to come. The members began to arrive with their salads, and they all needed space to put their creations together. Lucienne (my menace in the kitchen) came with enough salad for an army, and as I began taking out the turkey, which had baked quickly, saw something that she just couldn't abide. One dark meat turkey loaf looked too crispy for her, so she grabbed a bottle of vegetable oil and began pouring oil all over the brown little thing! I begged her to stop, and she did, with a satisfied smile, and a "that's better" look on her face. When she got busy elsewhere, I poured off the oil and patted down that little hummer until he wasn't shiny anymore. I got the potatoes heating up when Alain arrived in the kitchen with his bread. He had slaved over an automatic bread making machine, and presented me with 2 loaves of undercooked, tough, square shaped, dough blobs . . . I could only stare. What in the world was he thinking? (Well, one of them was studded with dark things, which turned out to be bits of chocolate, to make it more "special.") I took them and told him that we had baguettes to serve to people, at which he looked relieved and then took back the chocolate one!

We had a nice program, the centerpiece of which was, the DVD, "Joy to the World," telling the story of the birth of Christ, and featuring the beautiful music of the Tabernacle Choir. Some of the people we expected to come, didn't, but we had a non-member family there, as well as some inactives, and the number was 30 to the program and 28 to the dinner. Just after we served dessert, which was plenty of Buche de Noel (cream filled Christmas Logs all fancy and fine), I got a call from Heather who was wandering in a Wal-Mart and wondering if I needed something (4 orange flavored children's aspirin would be nice), so Jack had me take her (via phone) in to meet the members and they called out "Joyeaus Noel, Heather!" to her. That was neat. Then, cute little Madeleine made everybody give me a standing ovation for being a "bonne cuisiniere," and that made it all worthwhile.

Our Christmas day was party left-overs with the Elders and Alain, quiet and simple. We thought about you all, and thanks for the cards and calls and pictures you sent us, we love that kind of stuff the very best. Be safe, happy and healthy, and keep in touch . . .we love you.

Sister Mom