Paris Perspectif

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Today we went to church in Paris.  We spent the weekend with my brother, Darrell, before he goes back to New York.  We had a great visit with him which I will detail later in this post but let's start at the beginning of the week.

Monday was a good day.  We spent it with our young Elders.  At 10:00 a.m. we took them to Sedan to visit the castle.  They loved it.  We had a great visit and bought  a book about the castle for our grandkids.  They love medieval stuff.  After we left the chateau we went to Chapelle St. Roger for a picnic.  We had prepared baguette sandwiches, water, fruit and chips.  It was a great lunch in a peaceful setting.  Afterward we took the Elders shopping.

On Tuesday we went to three lessons with the Elders.  We taught about the Plan of Salvation and the Restoration.  At the last lesson we hit a bit of a snag.  The lady we were to teach had a friend over who was not interested in what we had to teach but was very interested in debating with us.  We answered his questions as best we could but it did take away from our real goal.  However, we did leave a blessing on her new home which she really wanted to do.  

We also were able to visit with a senior couple that we visit frequently.  They live in a main floor apartment here and have home care come in several times a day to give their medications and meals.  It's tough because they are quite lonely.  When we go over we try and leave them with a message that can cheer them up and at the same time provide a little respite to their otherwise routine day.  They are the parents of a friend of ours.  Our friend lives in Paris but his parents live in Charleville.

We are in charge of organising a Couple Missionary Conference in Caen this year.  We worked on this on Wednesday.  We finalised an agenda, made some assignments and e-mailed what we had to the Mission President.  On Friday we went over everything with him and his wife.  It' all good.  Now we can start confirming assignments and moving forward.  The conference will take place at the end of September and the beginning of October.

We taught one lesson on Wednesday but we had our Wednesday night activity.  We showed the film "Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration.  Our Branch is becoming so diverse that we showed the film in French in one room and in English in another room.

In the middle of the activity we got a call from our friend from Rwanda who needed some help bringing a washer up to her fifth floor apartment.  Ed and Elder Adams headed over to help.  They both came back quite exhausted.  Apparently it was the heaviest washing machine ever and it took four of them to take it up.

We had one of our friends from Nigeria who got a letter from  the French government saying that she had to have an interview and depending on the outcome of that interview she may have to go back to Africa.  She was visibly shaken by this news and Ed gave her a blessing of comfort which helped her feel better.

Wednesday was a great family day, too.   Lise-Anne phoned us first thing in the morning and shared some great news.  They will welcome a new baby into their family in the Spring. They are really excited and so are we.   

Dustin is in California attending a 2 week dental implant course.  We talked to him before he started for the day.  We then skyped with Spencer who was just returned from a holiday to Victoria.  Then we had to phone Ed's Dad about his teeth and we were surprised that Amy was there.  What a great bit of luck for us.  

At the end of the day we realised that we had talked to all 4 of our kids.  It was truly wonderful.  

Thursday was a big day.  After scripture study in the morning we had a Branch Missionary Meeting, discussing the missionary needs and progress of our Branch.  After our meeting we fed the Elders lunch.  We then had a weekly planning meeting.  At 4:08 we took the train to Paris.  Little did we know that there would be something on the track in the middle of nowhere which held us up until they cleared the track.  As a result we were two hours late getting in.

We had gone to Paris for our Zone Conference but at the same time, we were going to visit Ed's brother.  This was his last week in Paris before going home.  Our conference was great.  We did some practice teaching on the principles of the Gospel.  We participated in this as investigators of the church.  

We also participated in another aspect of the conference.  This week Ed was asked to interview a new convert in our Branch.  He asked them how the faith of the missionaries who taught them influenced their conversion.  We then gave one of these interviews to our Zone Leaders who used it as part of their training with the other Elders and Sisters at our Zone Conference.   It was a reminder of how much our Faith affects those we teach.

After the Zone Conference Darrell took us to a cool little restaurant in Le Marai for a falafel.  This was great.  We had a falafel in a pita with pickles, condiments, vegetables and sauce.  They were quite delicious.  We ordered them to go and ate them in a little park where we fed the pigeons and birds our leftovers.  The little birds would fly right up to Lynn's hand and eat all the while beating their wings furiously to keep in the air.  It was really cool.

On Saturday we walked and walked.  We started off by going to the open air market right by Darrell's apartment.  It was great.  we bought some good stuff.  For lunch we went to visit the Grande Mosquée de Paris.  We ate at the mosque's restaurant.  We had a couscous vegetable dish and a chicken tazine.  We had a tour of the mosque which was beautiful.  After this we walked to the Luxembourg Garden and watched the children sailing boats in the fountain.  Darrell and Ed remembered doing this when they were kids in France.  We then walked to the Tuileries Garden next to the Louvre and then finally headed to home.

This is how we refill our water bottles throughout Paris.  It's awesome. 

In front of Pantéon

Luxembourg Gardens

Diana the Hunter.  Lynn thought of her Mom when she took this.

Beautiful quiet spot just to sit and reflect right at the Luxembourg Gardens

Couldn't resist this old metal sign outside of a little corner store near  Darrell's apartment.  Love it.

Church this morning was at the same chapel where we had the Zone Conference.  While we were there we ran into the Hills from Lethbridge who were visiting Paris with their son Brad.  It was great to see someone from home.  The ward was quite different.  English members outnumbered the French members thanks to tourists.  There were translators for sacrament meeting and Relief Society and Priesthood.  Ed translated in the Priesthood lesson.  Sunday School had separate French and English classes.

We passed this on our way to Church this morning. Great idea for a dragon costume.

After church we had a great lunch with Darrell's and then we went to the famous Père Lachaise cemetery which is just a short walk from here.  We visited Jim Morrison's grave from the Doors, Moliere's grave and La Fontaine's grave, as well as Héloise and Abélard.  We loved it and it was apparent that  a lot of others thought the same as there were lots of people visiting there today.

unbelievably cool looking crypts and 

Pierre Abélard and Héloise d'Argenteuil - 12th century cool true story of lasting love

We have had a great time with Darrell and will be heading back home tomorrow.  This is his last week in Paris.  It was great seeing him and we will miss him but we expect him to be teaching in Paris again next summer.

That's all we have this week.
Au revoir de la France.
Lyndi-lou and Eddie, too.