Back to the Lake

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Today was an awesome day!  It was Fast and Testimony meeting.  We had some very powerful testimonies in both French and English.  We had a great Sunday School lesson about forgiving others based on Paul's letters to the Corinthians.  I think the reason the spirit was so much in evidence was because we also had a baptism today.

One of our Friends was baptised.  So for the fourth time we headed to the lake.  It was getting a little cool out but the water was fine.  When we left for church today it was around 10°.  However, the water wasn't too bad.  Ed had the pleasure of doing the baptism.  He was fine with being in cold water.  After all he is from Canada.  We were all worried about our Nigerian convert who is more used to a warmer climate.  

Setting up the Change Room.  photo by Isabelle.

Photo by Isabelle

Thanks Isabelle for this beautiful photo

 Amazing talent!  Thanks again to Isabelle.

We had a lovely baptismal program.  Both our younger missionaries spoke, one on baptism and one on the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  We welcomed this new member into our Branch and gave him a set of scriptures.  We were able to find two Books of Mormon written in Yoruba to give to our two Nigerian converts.  They love being able to read the scriptures in their native language.

We said goodbye to our very dear friends, the Steenbliks this week. They are finishing their mission and heading back to Utah.  They came down to see us on Friday night and stayed over to Saturday morning.  We had a chance to go out for dinner.  Ed and Glen went for a run together on Saturday and Lynn and Jane went for a walk.  We visited Sedan Castle and then parted ways.  We are looking forward to visiting them in Utah when we go home.  We wish them all the very best.

This week was transfer week.  Both of our Elders are staying put.  Elder Rivas has been made a District Leader.  He will do a great job.  He is always obedient, hard working and dedicated.  He will be a great example to all of us in the district.

Speaking of our Elders, they did a great service project for us this week.  They came over and helped us clean out our garage and organise it.  Afterward we had them for lunch.  We actually had them over 3 times this week, twice for lunch and once for supper.  We love spending time with both Elder Rivas and Elder Adams.  They are great young men who are working hard to further the gospel in this part of God's kingdom.  And they are seeing great success.  

We had a great Wednesday Night activity.  We watched films - Johnny Lingo and Legacy.  Afterward we shared snacks.  What a great opportunity for our new members to get to know our other members better and to socialise with them.  

Lynn  and I are starting a Gospel Study class in French.  The purpose is to teach our Friends of the church and to increase their knowledge of the gospel.  It will be done in French for everyone, including the English speakers.  They get to learn the gospel and to learn French.  Everyone living in France needs a good command of French if they hope to get a job, go to school and survive.  

We had some crises at home this week.  Our basement flooded because of a sewer backup.  This caused some damage.  We had to get insurance involved and it was a bit of a pain.  Ed's brother also had a problem with finances that we are working through.  

All of our grandkids went back to school and are off to a great start.  They love their teachers and are looking forward to a great year.  Lise-Anne's kids are going to Agnes Davidson where Ed used to teach and where he used to be principal.  Their teachers all know Ed and his picture is on the wall.  They think that is kind of cool.  All of our children went to Davidson.  Polly has the same kindergarten teacher that her mother had. 

We just got the happy news today that Adam, who turned 14 recently, passed his learners license too.  Congrats Adam.  His new ride is a cool red scooter.  This brings back some memories of our kids and their scooter.

The rest of our week was filled up with meetings, lessons and planning for the Couples Conference, all of which were very positive.

So that's all we have for this week.

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