From Past to President

Sunday, December 7, 2014

This week was a very busy week.  On Monday we started off by trying to do some volunteer work but we were asked not wear our name tags again.  We have already asked our Mission President about this and we are to always wear our name tag so people know who we are and what we represent.  So we were not able to volunteer.  We did, however, do some visits.  We continue to visit members who are on our branch list and who are not coming out to church.  We want to get to know them and to support them however we can.  We are trying to reach out to people on a daily basis by just talking to them and getting to know more people in the town.  People are very nice and it is fun getting to know them.

One of our assignments is to inspect the young missionary apartments and so we went on a road trip this week which, of course, like all we do in France turned out to be somewhat historic.  We first went to Orleans which is where Joan of Arc first defeated the English.  There is a huge statue of her on her horse in the city square.  We had some time to look around the city and do some shopping.

Jeanne d'Arc in the Orléans Square

The next day we traveled to Auxerre, about a two hour drive.  We purposefully programmed our GPS not to go by way of major highways and so we meandered through quaint little French villages and towns.  Every town has a huge Catholic church and most have a cool little square.  In Auxerre we had one apartment inspection and then we went about an hour to Troyes where we had one more.   I was able to rewire a light fixture for one of the apartments, change some light bulbs and fix a toilet seat.  From Troyes, we headed home with a quick stop at IKEA to buy some bedding for some guests we are expecting this weekend.   We saw some beautiful scenery and enjoyed a different aspect of our missionary experience.

Auxerre, France

Whoopee!  C'est Fun!

Charleville-Mézières has its own version of a Christmas Market which is really cool.  There are a number of booths, some food, drink and crafts.  The clock tower in the main square is decorated like Santa.  They have put up a skating rink, even though the weather has never gone below freezing.  They run it with a large refrigeration unit.  There is a toboggan hill "sans snow".  The kids slide down on a plastic sled down a plastic man-made hill.  They seem to love it.  There is a maze made out of Christmas trees.  At night on the weekends they have a Christmas light show that is projected onto one of the old buildings in the square.  The whole thing is amazing and the people here go nuts over it.  There are huge crowds there.

NHL here we come!

Pére Noël

Christmas Train

Bon Appétit 

This weekend we had the pleasure of hosting the Young Adults from our stake.  These are 18 to 30 year olds that are members of the church.  They arrived on Saturday and we practiced some Christmas carols.  We went to the Christmas Market.  The Young Adults made supper for us.  We had Crêpes, fruit and drinks.  It was all great.  Then we spent the remainder of the evening playing board games.  We had a great time.  On Sunday they provided breakfast - crêpes again.  We had church and then some of the stake leaders provided a hot lunch.  We went to a Senior's Home and sang carols which was very well received.  We then went back to the church for dessert.  The Young Adults were super and it was great seeing our little church so full.

Maison de Retraite

Making new friends

During church this morning I was called to be the Branch President.  I am looking forward to this calling.  I have some ideas about how I can help the branch and strengthen it.  I gave a small talk and met with the Stake President about some ideas for the branch.  This week my counsellor and I will meet to look at some goals and objectives for the branch.

We also decorated our own petit arbre de Noël this week.

Joyeux Noël

Aurevoir for now from France.  We continue to love what we are doing and we are enjoying being in "La France".

Lyndi-lou and Eddie, too