Castles, Christmas-Market and Charity

This week we had quite a wide variety of events happen.  We both were asked to speak in our branch this week and spent a good chunk of time preparing for this.  Lynn and I have been trying to connect with less active members of our branch.  To do this we went to the neighbouring town of Sedan.  Unfortunately we were not able to find the members we were looking for because they no longer lived there or we had the wrong address.  However, we did find a castle, thanks to our son Dustin, in Sedan that was incredible.

Looking over Sedan from the Castle

Ed in front of the dungeon entrance

It was built in the 1400's by Evard de la Marck whose family ruled Sedan as a separate country for almost three hundred years.  Sedan was recognized as an independent state by the king of France who was a friend of Sedan's founder.  Sedan was the biggest fortified castle in medieval Europe.  We did a tour and found the castle to be well preserved and amazing.  They had many displays that looked at what life was like in a castle.  Sedan was a Calvinist state.  When a Sedannais princess married a French Lord the country came under the control of France and reverted to catholicism.

All in all last week we attempted to visit 6 people from our branch with limited success in an attempt to get a bigger congregation coming out on Sundays.  We are going to continue visiting members of the branch to let them know we are here and that we are there for them.  We continue to love the work that we are doing in Charleville-Mézières and continue to feel of the Spirit as we do so.

We have been looking for a way of helping out in the community since we got here and asked at St. Vincent de Paul society.  They didn't need anyone right now but would later.  On Friday we were grocery shopping and some ladies were handing out bags for shoppers to fill out for the food bank.  That seemed like a good gig.  They were at all grocery stores and I bet they brought in even more food than "Feed the Bug".  When asked if they needed help they said yes and so we start on Monday.  It's exciting and we both are looking forward to it.

We have had a busy weekend.  On Saturday we went up to Liège in Belgium to be with two other couples, one couple who was moving there to work with Young Single Adults.  They are looking for an apartment and wanted to get a feel for the city and the ward.  It took us about two hours to get there.  We had lunch with our friends.  We had some typically local food - a boulet (huge meatball) and frîtes (twice fried French fries).  Not very healthy but it was delicious.  While in Liège we ran across a huge Christmas Fair in the square.  There were booths there selling Christmas crafts, trinkets, food and drinks.  It was quit amazing.  We bought a Belgian Waffle and a crêpe. Before we even started on the Christmas Market, though, I got a call from our Stake President in Lille, France asking me to come to Lille tomorrow to represent our branch at a stake meeting.  When I told him we were speaking in church the next day he told me that the meeting was quite important and expressed that he thought I should be there.  I was able to get out of speaking by phoning the counsellor in the branch presidency who I assume was going to pinch hit for us,  He is also going to arrange some visits for us and him together, so that is good.

So we headed back home to get ready to go to Lille in the morning.  We left for Lille at 6:30 this morning making the 2 and a half hour trip along fog covered little highways.  We were looking for sangliers (wild boars) all the way there and back but found none.   The meeting was great.  I got to meet all the bishops and branch presidents in the stake and got a good picture of where the stake was heading and how our own branch fit into the stake.  Our branch is hosting the stake's Young Single Adults next weekend for a two day activity.  It should be a lot of fun and we hope to be involved.

Until then, it is "au revoir" for now.
From, Lyndi-lou and Eddie, too.

Here are a couple extra pictures.  Some of our apartment and a couple of some cool puppets (remember the marionette centre is just down the street).  Hope you enjoy!

View from our Bedroom window

Cool marrionettes

our apartment

Study area