B & B (Busy and Blessed)

Sunday, February 21, 2016

We thought it might be interesting to share with you what a typical week looks like for us as missionaries.  (Interspersed with pictures that Isabelle took and shared with us.)  As usual, our week ended up being quite busy.  Tuesday and Wednesday we both taught our classes as usual.  The preparation for these is extensive but we learn  so much while preparing and attending.  We're pretty sure we are the ones being fortified.  We just hope our students enjoy it as much as we do.  We actually get the lesson twice because we attend each others class.  This unique opportunity is quite strengthening.  It also helps with Lynn's french.  Our flurry of preparation dies down on Thursday and is replaced by another flurry of activities stretching through Sunday.  

We are not complaining about being busy.  It is great.  We love it.  We want to be useful in our Branch and in our calling.  And so we always try to be willing to serve and to help out whenever we can.  We also lead a self reliance group called "My Job Search".  This involves a 2 hour meeting each week (Sunday or Wednesday) along with the necessary preparation.  Ed always has some Branch business to take care of in his role as Branch President.  This week, for example, he had to be at the church for a fire inspection.  There is also an upcoming baptism to plan and perform.  We always take the missionaries shopping.  We always teach with the Elders.  This week we did this 7 times.  Often Ed helps with members' needs.  This sometimes involves translating for members who don't speak French.  Ed meets every week with the Branch clerk for an hour and a half meeting.  We have a Branch Mission Leader meeting every week for 2 hours with the younger Elders.  Most weeks we have a District meeting for 2 hours.  This week Lynn had a Relief Society presidency meeting. 
Every morning we have Scripture study together and as a couple.  We plan together and set goals.  We also have regular reports to do.  These include a monthly car report and two financial reports.  

As usual unplanned things pop up on a regular basis.  This week the Elders' washing machine broke down and we had to go buy a new one.  Ed had to be there when it was delivered.  

These are from our trip to England last week.  All these gorgeous flowers out already!  London temple in the center.

Lynn has been working on a Relief Society clothing exchange that will be happening this coming week.  

We are also going to have a special missionary activity in Charleville this week that involves our whole district that we only found out about late yesterday.   

We enjoyed our  French folk dancing class Thursday night.  We feel so luck to be able to go to that.  Except we wish it was earlier.  It doesn't start until 8:30 and goes until 10:00.  We are exhausted at the start but soon find our second wind.  I suppose we are becoming culturally  diverse.  We were suppose to have attended a Folk Dancing event two weeks ago in a sweet little village near here but Lynn was sick and we couldn't go.  We were disappointed and decided we'll have to still go check out the village, Launois sur Vence.  They have a little market and it's got quite a good reputation for being authentic.  We'll share pictures when we do.

Our chat's with family this week have been good.  Of course they are having the same challenges and successes that we saw in our day.  Man, we are grateful for FaceTime to help us be a part of our kids and grandkids lives.  We pray for them daily.  

Sweet little headband Lise-Anne designed.  Polly was pretty excited telling us all about it!

This week we had a special activity that we thoroughly enjoyed.  We contacted a new missionary couple assigned to Liege this week.  We phoned them on Wednesday and decided to get together.  As a result, Brother and Sister Slaughter, from Sandy Utah, came down on Saturday and spent the day with us.  We had a wonderful time together.  Lynn made a great lunch.  We visited the church, showed them around the city, went shopping and then we headed to Sedan for a visit to our local castle.  When we got back to Charleville we all went out for supper for kebabs.  We had a great time.  We were really happy to get to know the Slaughters.  We really hit it off together.  We had a wonderful day with them.

Us and Elder and Sœur Slaughters (Dave and Connie)

Being busy is great.  We feel very well used in our callings as missionaries and Branch leaders.  We feel we are a support to our members.  Time just races by and that is a good thing, too.

And, of course, we have taken it upon ourselves to write this blog which is done for this week.

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