Spiritual High

Sunday, January 17, 2016

We have had a very busy week but a very spiritual one.  In fact we had two very good conferences this week and a great meeting.

Let's start with Monday.  We received our Christmas package from The Mossey's.  Woohoo!  They sent it on December 1st and we just got it.  Coincidentally we sent Tyler his birthday package December 1st also and he still hasn't received it yet.  

On Wednesday evening we had a meeting with two men, one from our Stake and one from Toulouse. They talked to our Branch members about Self Reliance or Autonomie in French.  This involves a number of areas including, starting a business, finding a job, getting an education and financial self reliance.   We had some training where we went through a workbook and touched upon the various aspects of self reliance.  

We had a great turn out for our Autonomy meeting.

Afterward our members signed up for a focus group that they would be interested in pursuing.  Our members signed up for Finding Employment, Starting a Business and Fundamentals of Self Reliance.  Now we need to move forward and follow a program that allows us to set goals for ourselves and to learn how to achieve them in whatever area we signed up for.  We will be starting this last step very soon.

Our two conferences were a missionary conference and a Branch Conference.  The missionary conference took place in Paris on Thursday.  We took the TGV there early in the morning.  We were taught by President Babin and his wife from the mission and by Elder Kearon from the European region.  We were very much edified by the messages of obedience diligence and faith that we heard.  We also had a chance to connect with other missionaries, some young ones we had not seen for a while and some not so young ones that we hadn't seen for a while.  Lunch was provided so we were physically fed and spiritually fed as well.

Us and Elder Libby

Elders Libby and Motiuk

Elders Kendrick and Motiuk are cousins and grandsons of Norm & Jolene Gosling.  They are serving in Liege, Belgium.

Us with Elder Kearon

This is Sœur Royer from Metz who is going to serve in St George Utah.  She serves in Liege while waiting for her visa.

(Elders Daines (Rexburg ID), Gagnon, (Saint-Antoine, Quebec), Nagloo (Mauritius & Belgium), Engelbrecht (Aruba).  These are the guys we work the most with.  Including us this is our District.

Today we had our Branch Conference.  We had representatives from the Stake here to teach us and sustain us.  We had lessons and talks.  Ed gave a talk as did the Stake President, his counsellor, someone from the Stake Relief Society and the Stake Primary. All went well.  We had 33 people at church today.

In between the two conferences we did not stay idle.  On Friday we headed to Luxembourg and Nancy.  I know this next sentence might not sit well with our Canadian friends and family.  We actually ran into snow for the first time this winter.  It was not nearly as nice as driving on dry pavement.

In Luxembourg all was good.  In Metz Ed put on a new toilet seat.  He tried to fix the heating system but was unsuccessful.  We have been having trouble getting someone to fix this and the Mission Office is involved in trying to put a little pressure on.  Although it is warmer here than at home the young missionaries still need heat.  In addition, though, they do not have hot water.  This is tied in to the same heating unit.  

This has been a good week for connecting with friends.  We had a nice phone call last Sunday from Keith and Louise Woodrow and had a great visit over the phone.  They are doing well and are heading south for some warmth and relaxation.  We also talked to Maurene and Tom Wilson from Ireland   Their mission is going well and we had a great chat with them.  We also connected with our Fernie friends, Cheryl and Neil McDermid.  It is always nice to connect with good friends and to chew the fat a little.

All of our lessons are going well.  We are winding down our Institute class but a new one will start up on in February.   Our family, too, is doing great.  We are grateful for all we have and for the work we are doing in France.  We thank all of our friends and family for their love and support. 

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