Feast and Testimony

Sunday, June 7

Wow!  It is June already.  We are starting the 8th month of our mission.   That hardly seems possible.  Time has gone so quickly. We were blessed today to have 34 people at church.  We had to move Sunday School to the Sacrament Room.  There was not enough room in our regular classroom.  There were 14 Dampt's there, three Royer's from Metz and 5 amis.

Today was Fast and Testimony meeting.  We had a great Sunday.  You could feel the Spirit as people spoke.  It helped that it was Elder Christiansen's last Sunday.  He is going home on Wednesday after serving an amazing mission.  People expressed their love and thanks to him for all that he has done.  He has really made a difference in our Branch.  When we arrived in Paris he was the first mission face we saw as he came to pick us up at the airport.  Every time we saw him since then he told us he wanted to come to Charleville-Mézières.  He got his wish for the last two transfers.  We had snacks/lunch after our meetings to say thank you.  We took pictures and shot the breeze afterwards.

Laurent playing a mean bagpipe

We weren't on the road as much this week but we did do one road trip with a stop in St. Quentin-all mission business, of course.  On Tuesday we took the Elders to our regular district meeting.  We did some practice teaching with different people based on topics that were posted around the room.  We had lasagne, bread, cheese, flan and Haitian pudding with bananas and plantain.  All was delicious.

Our St.Quentin District

After our meeting the Elders took the train home.  Ed drove them to the gare (station).  We then went to inspect the two missionary apartments in  St. Quentin.  They both were fairly good but they need some work.  I exchanged light bulbs and a toilet seat in the Soeurs' apartment.  Yup, all in a days work.

Soeur King and Soeur Brazil in St. Quentin

Elder Jones and Elder Bigelow in St. Quentin

Elder Dayley and Elder Christiansen here in Charleville.

Ed had a stake meeting Tuesday night.  So we left St. Quentin and headed to Lille where we did a little shopping and had supper at a Chinese food counter in the mall.  It was quite delicious.  Ed's meeting was for all the bishoprics in the Stake.  It started at 7:30 and went until 9:30.  We stayed at the B&B hotel which is a hotel not a Bed and Breakfast.

There were a group of 80 students there from the French Caribbean.  We thought that would be a disaster from the noise but it went very well.  They were there on a government sponsored trip for kids who were French but not living in metropolitan France.  We headed home the next morning after Ed had a run.

While on his run Ed saw a group of people stopped by the police.  They were travelling in a caravan of old cars and trailers.  There were many policemen and they seemed to be confiscating their trailers which were not in very good shape.  Two were already on a tow truck.  Of course, the owners were not happy at all.  Ed felt sorry for the kids and families involved as he believes those trailers were their homes.  We would like to know what exactly happened.

We have been busy with lessons all week.  We really find this invigorating.  We have been at lessons with 7 different people.  Most of these people are coming to church.  We have 3 baptism dates in the next little while.  We are very excited about this.  Every Sunday is a spiritual feast for all of these people.  We have such strong and faithful members.  They are a huge support to us and to our missionary efforts. 

This week we have spent a bit of time looking for a place to baptise.  We believe in baptism by immersion, so we need a place that is deep enough to do that.  We went to look at a local lake this week to see if that would do.  We went all the way around it, which was quite a pleasant task.  We found a couple of potential places.  Ed wanted to throw Lynn in to see if they would work but she wouldn't cooperate.  

Checking out Lac Warren for Baptisms. (Love the name!)

Next Ed went to the pool to see if we could use it.  After talking with three different people we were told to make a request to the city.  Ed did that and we are waiting for a response from none other than, his honour, the Mayor.

Our Branch has a portable baptistry.  So on the hottest day we have had so far (+30) Ed went over to the church and dragged it out.  After sweating like a sanglier, he set it up in an unused room to see what it looked like.  It actually looks like an above ground 4' by 8' pool with a ladder.  We were worried about one of the baptisms of a lady who walks with a cane.  However, when Ed showed it to her after church today she said she would be fine with it.  He told her if she couldn't manage the stairs that he and Elder Dailey could pick her up and throw her in.  She was okay with that, too, and it sounds like fun.  The other potential baptism was okay with the portable font, too.  Now all we have to do is give it a trial run.

We were at the store getting a couple of groceries yesterday and we came across a small collection of Deux Chevaux, the quintessential French car made by Citroen.  Ed had a chance to talk to one of the owners about how the engine works and how easy it is to change motors.  He tried to weasel a ride in one but it didn't work.  It was awesome.

We have had some great contact with our family - parents, brothers, children, children in law and grand children.  It was Jack's birthday this week.  We saw Peter's piano recital on a video and we saw a video of Wilson's year end concert, as well.   Max has a Kub Kar Rally this week.  Lise-Anne has moved back to Alberta from Ontario and we have kept up with that move, too.  Ed's brother will be teaching in Paris this summer.  After talking on the phone we have made arrangements for him to spend a weekend in Charleville.  It is important for us to include our family in our mission and we feel their support through their prayers.

We continue to be blessed to be here.  We love what we do.  Thank you to everyone for your support.

Au revoir de la France.
Lyndi-lou and Eddie, too.