Minuk, Christiansen & Uchtdorf

Sunday, May 15, 2016

We had an amazing week.  We had several highlights  First of all we had a new great-nephew born.  Congratulations to Jessica & Steve and to proud grandparents Warren & Debbie.  He is absolutely beautiful.

Wyatt Robert Minuk

Then we had a visit from President Uchtdorf on Tuesday.  He came to Brussels to speak to our Stake and the Brussels Stake.  He spoke, Sister Uchtdorf spoke and Elder Johnson, a counsellor in the presidency of the Interregion spoke.  We were blessed by all of their talks and by the special spirit we felt in President Uchtdorf's presence.  He took the time to visit with the people who were there afterward but Lynn and I did not get to talk to him because of the large crowds.  What a great man and a tremendous example to the world.  After all, he was refugee twice in his life.  What an uplifting night.

We travelled there with our two Elders and Clara Biver from our Branch.  On the way there we stopped at Terurven Park to see the spot where the lands of Belgium and Luxembourg were dedicated for missionary work.  What a beautiful spot.  This was the third time we had visited there as any of our regular blog readers would know.  We took turns reading the dedicatory prayer that was offered by Elder Holland in 1998.  We were able to soak in the beauty and the spirit that abides there.  We had a late night and didn't actually get back home until midnight but man it was worth it.

Maurene, we found a leprechaun house here in France.  They must holiday over here from where you guys are in Ireland.

Brussels - Us with the Liege Missionaries.  Elders Libby, Kendrick, Deem and Jackson in the back.  Elder Jackson is 7ft 6. Elder Kendrick is the Gosling's grandson and Elder Libby - he's been out as long as we have.  We love them all.

Tervuren Park, Brussels Belgium

Our second highlight this week was the return of Elder Brendan Christiansen.  He was one of the first young missionary Elders to be assigned to Charleville and went home at the beginning of last summer.  He was back visiting with his parents.  They stayed at our place.  It was really a treat to get to meet his parents.  What wonderful people they are.  We had a Branch meal and had a great time together.  A family visit from Metz, Gilles, Corinne and Paulette Royer came to church to see Elder Christiansen and meet his family.  He had served there and they loved him.  He was an amazing missionary and it was great that he was able to come back.  Many of the baptisms we had last year were because of his initial work.  

The Royer's (Corinne, Pauline and Gilles) and Christiansens (Brendan, Margaret and David)

Speaking of returns, our High Counsellor, Christian Carpentier was back with us today, as well.  He has not visited us since January because he had to have bypass surgery.  He has had a very good recovery.  He is doing extremely well and was very glad to be back in "his Branch".  We were glad to have him back, too.  We love him and missed him a great deal.

We also had Emeric Biver return to Charleville for a couple of months.  We are very happy to have him back here with us.  He finished his job at Oxford and is on to new adventures.  Awesome for us. 

Christiansen's and Biver's

Decided to take a picture of this awesome tower on the top of Hotel de Ville earlier this evening.  Margaret suggested that it looks like a Harry Potter tower and we agree.

We made an emergency trip to Nancy this week.  Last transfer the Sister missionaries were taken out of Nancy.  When we were doing recent apartment checks we stopped and borrowed some things to distribute to other apartments.  This transfer they have put Sisters back in Nancy.  She therefore headed there to put back what was taken out.  We made a stop in Ikea to buy some of the things we needed to replace.  We made a stop on the way to deliver a bag to the Royer's that their daughter, Lisa had left in Brussels before leaving on her mission to the US.    This was Gilles twin brother Luc and wife Yvette.  They were suppose to come today too but couldn't make it.  While we were in Nancy we decided to visit the big park off Place Stanislas.

The flowers in Pépinière Park in Nancy, France are beautiful

More wonderful flowers.

The tourist train in Place Stanislas, Nancy, France

The rest of our week was filled with the usual things.  We taught lessons.  One lesson we taught was our last Institute class this year.  This was a milestone for us.  We still have an evaluation to do and will also have a wind up party.  Lynn and I are going to come up with a game and the students will plan the rest.  We also supported the Elders in their teaching lessons on a few occasions.  I met with some of the members in my capacity as Branch President.  We had a DMB meeting and we had some reports to fill out for apartments and for our mission expenses.

I think you can see by all that we have done this week that we are indeed blessed in serving a mission.  It is not all the time that you get to experience the things we have experienced this week.  We are so lucky.

Thank you for checking us out each week.  We love posting our comings and goings and keeping our friends and family up to speed. 

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