Family Ties

Sunday, October 18, 2015

We'll start off by saying that today is Lynn's dad's birthday.  He would have been 87 years old today.  He passed away 9 years ago at the age of 76.  We miss him. 

Last Saturday night, October 10th his older brother Fred passed away.  He was 93 years old.  It is so hard to say good-bye.  We will lovingly remember Uncle Fred as a gentle caring man.  It's interesting because Amy and Lynn were just talking about Uncle Fred the day before we heard of his passing and Amy said that he reminded her of Mr. Rogers.  The way he looked with his sweaters and his gentle mannerisms.  We wish his family lots of love as they forge ahead in the next days and months.    

We continued to enjoy the visit with Amy & Tyler. We had rearranged our schedule in advance so we were able to spend some nice time with them.  We visited the town showing them all the hot spots.  These included some of the former villages that have been incorporated into Charleville-Mézières, the lavoir (old time wash house), the square, the river walk and park and the shopping area.

A Yummy meal of a mixed bag:  Louisianna Chicken with Baguette and Cheese.  Along with Pâte Ardennoise.

On Monday we went to Bouillon Castle where we toured and watched the Falcon show.  It was quite funny because the falconer chose Amy to be part of the show.  He put a leather glove on her hand and a metal sieve on her head.  A big bird landed on her hand and another one on her head.  It was amusing and interesting at the same time.  Amy did look a little worried but enjoyed the experience in the end.  Afterward we had lunch at a frîterie.  It wasn't good for us but it sure tasted good.  When we got home we did some shopping.

On Tuesday we got up early and headed to Pierrefonds to visit the château there.  This was the castle where the TV show Merlin was filmed.  Merlin is one of Amy's favourite shows.  She loved the visit to the château and so did we.

Amy with "Woinic" The biggest Sanglier in the World!

On Wednesday morning it was time for us to say goodbye to good old Elder Rivas.  He had been here for 12 weeks and had done an incredible job.  We picked him up at 7:00 a.m and took him to the train station.  We gave hugs and off he went.  Fortunately for us we will continue to see Elder Rivas as he is going to Luxembourg and we do apartment checks there.

Speaking of apartment checks we had to go to Metz and Luxembourg to do just that.  Of course, Amy and Tyler were coming with us.  On the way we stopped in Verdun and looked at some WWI sites.

We got to Metz in time for lunch.  We visited the apartment while Tyler and Amy shopped.  In Metz the apartment was moving from a two-missionary apartment to four.  The Elders are to be commended.  With very little warning they had done a good job of keeping things clean and manageable.  

We met up again with Amy and Tyler after the apartment check.  We really enjoyed the historic part of Metz where Ed's family would go shopping when he was a young boy.  We visited the places where Ed  lived, played and attended school as a young boy, including the Roman aqueduct.  It was really enjoyable to be with them.

In Luxembourg on Thursday we walked around the old part of town which was quite fascinating.  We visited the Catacombs.  Incredible.

Friday morning Amy and Tyler left to go back home.  We hung around the airport for a while.  This is always kind of awkward.  You don't really want to leave because you want to spend as much time together as possible before they head home.  They on the other hand need to board and you just kind of hang around waiting for one or the other to make a move.  After waiting the prescribed amount of time we said our goodbyes.  This is always hard to do.  We loved spending time with Amy and Tyler.   We had a great time together and were so happy we could share a bit of our part of the world with them.

Right away we headed to the Elders' apartment for an apartment check.  We were  very happy to see Elder Rivas and his companion.  The apartment was great.  There were really no issues.  By 11:00 a.m. we were on the road again.

Our next destination was Liège, Belgium.  We were on our way to visit the Redd's.  They had a huge project they had undertaken that we had said we could help them with.  Their chapel was celebrating its 50th anniversary and the Redd's had been asked to spearhead the activity.  We helped put up pictures on display.  We set up chairs and projectors.  We arranged tables and viewing areas.  We cleaned a little.  We moved food from the car to the chapel.  Saturday morning Ed and Elder Redd went and picked up 24 pies and 100 buns from an amazing bakery in Flemish Belgium.  On the way back they went through the Netherlands briefly.  The whole expedition took about one hour.  

We helped at the chapel until about one o'clock.  We then had to head home because Lynn had a Relief Society meeting at 4:30.  She has been recently called to the Relief Society presidency and they were having their first meeting.  By the time we stopped for lunch and gas we got home at about 3:30.  On the way we listened to an audio book by L. Tom Perry called "Living With Enthusiasm". It was very good.  He is such a positive example for us to follow.

While Lynn was at her meeting, Ed made soup for supper and for the Branch meal after church.  Talk about stretching himself!  We had 20 people at church, including a couple visiting from Utah.  The husband had been a missionary in Charleville-Mézierères in1989 and was back for a visit.  

We also had the chance to meet our new missionary here.  Elder Daines.  He is from Rexburg, Idaho.  We are happy to have him serving here with us.

We had our Branch Council meeting and our High Counsellor from the Stake.  We met our new missionary.  He had a chance to introduce himself and to share his testimony.  It was a great meeting and everyone enjoyed it.  We had a great Branch meal, too, including a pie that we had bought for the occasion from the little pastry shop in Flemish Belgium.

Our son Dustin and Lindsey his wife had new pictures taken.  We love it and wanted to share it with our friends and family too.

What a lovely week we had with our Canada family members and our Branch family members.  We love them all.  That's all we have this week.

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