Birthdays and Blessings

 Sunday, March 20, 2016

This week is always a birthday week in our family.  In the space of 4 days we have 4 birthdays - Ed's Mom, the 17th,  Amy, and Ed's brother Darrell, the 19th and Ed's Dad on the 20th.  

We like to phone the person whose birthday it is.  This is always great.  It is often sometimes difficult when contacting my parents because they are often not in their rooms where their phone it.  We had to chase my Mom and dad down with the LPN at the nursing home.  It was a great talk with them though when we finally got through.  I think they enjoy it as much as we do.  Unfortunately, Ed messed up on the time change when he phoned his Dad.  He ended up phoning him before 7:00 a.m.  Fortunately he didn't answer.

Well, that's enough about birthdays.  Let's move on to blessings.

We'll start with the blessings of families.  While we are in France we try to manage the affairs of Ed's parents and his brother.  This week we needed some help with a couple of issues with them and we quickly got some help on the home front.  In the past we also have had to assist them with a number of things from finances to house maintenance to healthcare.  We truly feel supported and blessed by our family.  We try to include them as much as possible in our mission.

Secondly, we are blessed because of our mission.  We often comment to each other how lucky we are.  We feel the hand of the Lord in our lives.  He blesses us and our family regularly.  We are blessed to be in a lovely Branch with great people.  We are blessed by the support of our Branch members, the Friends of the Church and the younger missionaries.  We are blessed with the great leaders we have the privilege of working with.  We are blessed by the culture, history and the beauty of living in France.  we are blessed by the many friends we have met here.    

We are blessed to be able to work hand in hand with younger missionaries who are great examples of diligence and obedience.  We were able to take our Elders to Bouillon castle during their P-Day where we saw a falconry show.  We also stopped for fries and a sandwich.  

He wasn't behaving!  He say's he's innocent.

They have one day a week where we can do that sort of thing with them.  The rest of the week they are hard at work.  We often have them over for lunch or provide a meal at an activity for them.  They are always so grateful.  On Friday they showed their thanks by having us over for lunch.  We had home-made soup, home-made bread and fruit.  It was lovely and very much appreciated.  Funny story though.  When we first arrived they had the table set up like this; looking like it was going to be Kraft Dinner, Candy and oil.  (All the things we're trying not to eat!) They're a couple of characters.  Both are wonderful missionaries.

After they brought out the food they'd actually prepared.  It was great. 

Thirdly, we are blessed by the spirit we feel continually in our lives.  We are fortunate to have great examples here in France.  Our teachers at church, the members that we work closely with and the teaching we do regularly are great conduits of the Holy Ghost.  He blesses our lives and watches over us and protects us.  As we help people come closer to our Saviour we feel the spirit as it uplifts us and the people we are helping.  What a faith building experience.

This week we had a Consecration Day in Reims for the second time.  We spent the day there.  The young Elders went out contacting and met with some success.  We stayed at the church ready to provide an Open House experience.  The bishop's wife provide us with a great pasta lunch and had a lovely day. 

The next day we helped Beauty, a member of our little Branch, move to a new home.   It's not a very big place and it's further away from the church but this morning she was off bright and early to walk to get there on time.  It took her 45 minutes to walk from her home to the church.  And she always has a smile on her face.  We are so grateful for her.  She is trying to learn the language and look for a job in a country that is difficult to assimilate into.

We also headed to Liege, Belgium.  We have become quite friendly with the new missionary couple that lives there, the Slaughters.  We had lunch together, did some mission shopping at Ikea, saw some sights and had supper together.  It was a great day. 

We love the moss on the trees.  It looks quite cool.

Just passed by these three horses on the way.  They needed their pictures taken.

Beautiful stone.

Funny little homes.  Such character!

Love the door.

Saint Bartholémy Church

Cool baptismal font inside the church.  It's one of the 7 wonders of Belgium

A mobile butcher

This is a fascinating place.  Motagne de Bueren.  Nearly 400 steps.  Lynn climbed them all!

One of the doorways on the way up the stairs.

Isn't this so appealing!

How would you like to live 1/2 way up the stairs?  Keep you in shape getting your groceries home.

Whoo Hoo!  The top!

Kiwi tree.

Just another great street

Sweet looking place.

We had a great day at church today.  Lynn and I both spoke.  It went well and people enjoyed what we had to say.  Lynn did a great job with her French.  We also had some good classes today.  Ed finished our meetings today by facilitating a self-reliance session.  He has 5 people in this group who are all learning job seeking skills through the church's self-reliance program.

Our weeks fly by as we are always very busy.  We enjoy all that we do.

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