Feeling the Spirit in Lille

Sunday, September 13, 2015

We'd like to start by saying congratulations to our niece Bryanna who got married yesterday to Clayton in Lethbridge.  We are so happy for them and wish them all the best.

Mikeyla and Austin looking great.

Mr & Mrs Clayton Verbonac

Today and yesterday was our Stake Conference.  We had to travel two and a half hours to Lille.  We only had three members from our Branch who were not able to go.  We had quite a contingent there which was impressive.  This speaks to the faithfulness and dedication of our Branch members.

Stake Conference was an uplifting experience.  We had a visiting 70 from the Europe West Interegion, Elder Boutoille.  He had an opportunity to speak to us three different times about keeping the Sabbath day holy, honouring the priesthood, magnifying our callings, remembering to do the important things and missionary work.  His words were very uplifting.  It was very interesting.  He is from Lille and has a home there but this was the first time in over 4 years that he has spoke at the Lille Stake Conference because he has always been assigned to speak elsewhere at the same time.

We had three out of four of our recently baptised converts at the conference.  We had the pleasure of driving two of them there.  It was very touching to see how they were moved by the spirit by what they heard and saw at the conference and by the people they met.  The members of the Stake went out of their way to make them feel welcome.  The Stake Presidency took time to speak to each of them individually and they also held a special meeting for new members.  Elder Boutoille spoke to each of them at this meeting.  It was very well done and we know it was appreciated.  

After the Saturday evening session we went out to dinner with the three converts from our Branch and other members from the Stake.  It was a great opportunity to socialise and get to know each other better.

Stake Conference is a time to see friends you haven't seen for a while as was the case for Elder Rivas

Our Beautiful Bed and Breakfast

This week we started a French Preach My Gospel class.  Most of the students are English and do not know very much French.  We are hoping they will take this opportunity to learn the Gospel and some French at the same time.  Lesson one went very well.

We had a great Genealogy class for our Wednesday Night Activity.  We were taught how to do indexing.  Many of our members, including Ed were able to try their hand at it.  It was interesting, informative and fun.

We had four teaching appointments this week.  For one of them we had to split up.  Lynn went with one Elder and Ed with the other.  We taught the Law of Chastity, the Plan of Salvation, the Sabbath Day and Keeping the Commandments.  We like this part of our assignment.

We got a call from a Friend of the Church who lives in Paris who we have become quite friendly with.  His parents live in Charleville.  We visit them often.  When he is in town he comes to our Branch.  He was quite worried because his mother is in the hospital.  We were able to visit her this week and let him know that she was doing well.

We also had an opportunity to do one apartment inspection, the easiest one because it was right here in Charleville-Mézières.  The Elders are doing a great job keeping things clean and tidy.

Because we are getting close to the year mark on our mission there a couple of hoops we have to jump through in France.  We have to apply for a "Titre de Séjour" and for a French Driver's License.  A "Titre de Séjour" is basically asking for another year's extension on your visa.   Both of these processes are much more complicated and expensive than they need to be.  We have to pay a sizeable amount for both of these and we have to get documents translated by an official translator, including our driver's license and a Driver's Abstract.  Even as we write we have a translator working on this.  We have to then take these to a préfecture office and pay a sizeable amount.  We went to the Préfecture.  They were unable to make an  appointment before November 10.  This was the first available date.  However, it is 6 days after the anniversary date of our arrival in France so there would be a 180€ ($280) late fee for each of us as well as a 106€ registration fee each.  This does not even include the costs for our driver's licenses or the cost of translations.  It is very frustrating.  We are hoping to get an earlier appointment.

Despite the frustrations we encountered at the Préfecture the rest of the week more than compensated for the frustration.  It's all part of living in France.  As they say, "C'est la vie."

The Great District Meeting Meal  made by Elder Rivas

Reggie, our grandson.  He really wanted to go to school with the other kids.

That's it for now.
Au revoir de la France,
Lyndi-lou and Eddie, too.   

Back to the Lake

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Today was an awesome day!  It was Fast and Testimony meeting.  We had some very powerful testimonies in both French and English.  We had a great Sunday School lesson about forgiving others based on Paul's letters to the Corinthians.  I think the reason the spirit was so much in evidence was because we also had a baptism today.

One of our Friends was baptised.  So for the fourth time we headed to the lake.  It was getting a little cool out but the water was fine.  When we left for church today it was around 10°.  However, the water wasn't too bad.  Ed had the pleasure of doing the baptism.  He was fine with being in cold water.  After all he is from Canada.  We were all worried about our Nigerian convert who is more used to a warmer climate.  

Setting up the Change Room.  photo by Isabelle.

Photo by Isabelle

Thanks Isabelle for this beautiful photo

 Amazing talent!  Thanks again to Isabelle.

We had a lovely baptismal program.  Both our younger missionaries spoke, one on baptism and one on the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  We welcomed this new member into our Branch and gave him a set of scriptures.  We were able to find two Books of Mormon written in Yoruba to give to our two Nigerian converts.  They love being able to read the scriptures in their native language.

We said goodbye to our very dear friends, the Steenbliks this week. They are finishing their mission and heading back to Utah.  They came down to see us on Friday night and stayed over to Saturday morning.  We had a chance to go out for dinner.  Ed and Glen went for a run together on Saturday and Lynn and Jane went for a walk.  We visited Sedan Castle and then parted ways.  We are looking forward to visiting them in Utah when we go home.  We wish them all the very best.

This week was transfer week.  Both of our Elders are staying put.  Elder Rivas has been made a District Leader.  He will do a great job.  He is always obedient, hard working and dedicated.  He will be a great example to all of us in the district.

Speaking of our Elders, they did a great service project for us this week.  They came over and helped us clean out our garage and organise it.  Afterward we had them for lunch.  We actually had them over 3 times this week, twice for lunch and once for supper.  We love spending time with both Elder Rivas and Elder Adams.  They are great young men who are working hard to further the gospel in this part of God's kingdom.  And they are seeing great success.  

We had a great Wednesday Night activity.  We watched films - Johnny Lingo and Legacy.  Afterward we shared snacks.  What a great opportunity for our new members to get to know our other members better and to socialise with them.  

Lynn  and I are starting a Gospel Study class in French.  The purpose is to teach our Friends of the church and to increase their knowledge of the gospel.  It will be done in French for everyone, including the English speakers.  They get to learn the gospel and to learn French.  Everyone living in France needs a good command of French if they hope to get a job, go to school and survive.  

We had some crises at home this week.  Our basement flooded because of a sewer backup.  This caused some damage.  We had to get insurance involved and it was a bit of a pain.  Ed's brother also had a problem with finances that we are working through.  

All of our grandkids went back to school and are off to a great start.  They love their teachers and are looking forward to a great year.  Lise-Anne's kids are going to Agnes Davidson where Ed used to teach and where he used to be principal.  Their teachers all know Ed and his picture is on the wall.  They think that is kind of cool.  All of our children went to Davidson.  Polly has the same kindergarten teacher that her mother had. 

We just got the happy news today that Adam, who turned 14 recently, passed his learners license too.  Congrats Adam.  His new ride is a cool red scooter.  This brings back some memories of our kids and their scooter.

The rest of our week was filled up with meetings, lessons and planning for the Couples Conference, all of which were very positive.

So that's all we have for this week.

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

Seventh Heaven

August 30, 2015 (We are finished our 7th transfer and we were in Heaven doing apartment checks this week)

This week was the last week of this transfer. (Our 7th)  At our district meeting we took our picture.  As you can see we had people with as little as 3 to 15 transfers.  Our District Leader Elder Ericson, who did a great job, was transferred to Brussels.  We will miss him.  He is a fellow Canadian from Saskatoon.  Elder Rivas was made our new District Leader.  He will be wonderful. 

After our instruction a fellow came to talk about the renos they are doing to our chapel which will result in us having 40% less space.  It will be a sad day for our Branch.

Elders Rivas, Adams, Parsons, Hogenson (Hoagie), McDonald, Ericson

Elder Ericson from Saskatoon

The Staircase in our Church Building.  It's an apartment building also.

On Wednesday we went out to the Dampts' house for Home Teaching.  It was nice.  We taught the lesson and then had lunch.  We got to try some Ardennes specialities.  We had Pâte des Ardennes.  This is a flaky pastry with meat inside that is served warm.  We also had Boudin Blanc de Rethel.  This is a white sausage made with pork and milk.  We also had Tarte au Sucre Ardennaise.  This was a cake with a butter and sugar topping.  I know it doesn't sounds very healthy but it was delicious and we had a nice visit with Paulette, Michel and their daughter, son in law and grand daughter.  What a great example this family is to us.

On Thursday we were on the road again.  We had apartments to check in St. Dié, Colmar and Strasbourg.  This is always an uplifting experience for us.  We love the young missionaries.  They are always obedient, diligent and faithful.  They are also models of service, always willing to help others. 

As we were leaving we got a call from St. Dié Elders (Cisneros and Long) asking if we would like to go for lunch with the missionaries and two members of their Branch.  We gladly accepted.  After our inspection we went to a Chinese restaurant for some great food and we met two new friends.  (Patricia and Rosemary) Bonus!

Between St. Dié and Colmar we had to stop at a roadside vineyard.  It was quite cool.  We were  in the Alsace wine making region.  We also stopped for a photo op at a beautiful little village named St. Hippolyte that looked like it came out of Switzerland.

Coolest, best tasting grapes ever!

The top picture shows all the vineyards in the field beneath this cool castle near Hippolyte, France.

St. Hippolyte, France

Because we had changed our schedule a bit to allow us to go out for lunch in St. Dié we got to Colmar a little early and we were able to look around a bit.  This is an area called La Petite Venise, hence the canals and the boats.

Colmar - Petite Venise

Colmar - Absolutely Beautiful City

Another one of Colmar.  Got the horses just as they were headed up the street toward us.

In Colmar we met with our good friend Elder Karl.  This may be the last time we see him as he goes home in 6 weeks.  We have known him since we went to our first District Meeting in St. Quentin.  He is a great missionary.  Because we were saying goodbye to him we took him and his companion out for a kebab for supper.  It was great.

Elder Karl from Pennsylvania, and Elder Schow from Tremonton, Utah, in COLMAR

We left Colmar and headed to Strasbourg.  After an hour of driving we got there and checked into our hotel.  At 8:00 p.m. we Skyped with a new missionary couple, the Purles's.  They are in Brest.  We hope to be a support for them any way we can.  They are also MLS missionaries like us.  He may serve as Branch President there as well.  We had a great Skype session.   

We couldn't resist taking this picture.  Look at the carving in the wood.

There is beautiful craving on this home in Strasbourg as well.

Elder Kaonohi and Rollins(from Belfor) were on exchanges with the Strasbourg Elders.  Elder Kendricks was on splits (from Mulhouse) with Elder Divas, the Zone Leader from Strasbourg.  Confusing but doable.

The next morning we went to the Elders' apartment where there was one one Strasbourg Elder and three non-Strasbourg Elder.  They were on exchanges.  Elder Kendrick was there.  His grandparents Norm and Jolene Gosling are in our home ward.  The apartment check went well.

Before heading home we went to a park and walked around town a bit.  Strasbourg is one of the prettiest cities in France.  You can certainly see the German influence here.  

On Saturday we had 2 lessons.  We love the opportunity to teach with the younger missionaries.  It is not unusual for lessons to go a little differently than planned.  Such was the case with one of our lessons.  It is testimony building as we receive thoughts and inspiration from the spirit during these lessons as we help others come unto Christ. 

Church was great today.  We had 21 people there.  The meetings were great.  Our High Councillor from  Lille was there.  We had a Branch meal afterward and had a good time with everyone.  A lot of bonding and friendshipping took place.  Next week we have a baptism and the individual is excited.  Ed will get to do his third baptism.

Ed made everyone happy today.  We ordered some material for our Branch and it came in.  We were able to give a Book of Mormon in Yoruba (an African language) to our new convert.  We ordered a triple combination for the Dampts' grandson's baptism,   children's versions of the New Testament and Old Testament for our one and only Primary child as well as English copies of Gospel Principles for our anglophone Friends.

After our meetings the missionaries and Laurent Biver came over.  Laurent Skyped his family in England.  They are over there attending the temple and spending the weekend in Oxford at their son's and brother's place.  We all had a song practice for a hymn we are going to sing in sacrament meeting.  Then we had supper.  It was a great time.  Lynn said it was almost like we had a social life again.

We are grateful for the support from our family and friends.  We have had good news and sad news this week from both.  We hope and pray that everyone will receive the blessings their hearts desire. 

That's all we have for this week.  May God be with you 'til we write again.

Au revoir de la France.

Lyndi-lou and Eddie, too.

The Blitz

Sunday, August 23, 2015

The focus of our week this week was the Blitz.  What is that you may ask.  It happened on Friday.  We had 20 young missionaries converge on Charleville.  Their goal was to be visible, discuss with people and answer any questions.  But let me start at the beginning.

Missions are divided into zones.  Our zone leaders had an idea to help out the missionary effort in Charleville-Mézières. On Tuesday at our District Meeting we worked on the "Blitz" after our instruction.   They wanted to send all 20 missionaries in our zone to Charleville to flood the downtown with white shirts and ties and dresses.  After all we do have two sister missionaries in our zone, along with my wife, Lynn.  Our downtown area has never seen so many name tags.

A week and a half ago I got a call from one of our zone leaders to ask me if I could get a permit to set up tables in the square to provide explanations about what we believe in.  After going to the prefecture, the police station and city hall, I got someone to take me to an office where they could help me.  I found out that we didn't need a permit if we weren't stationary.  But since we wanted to use tables we did need authorisation.  I had to write a letter to request this which I did.  I waited for an answer and waited but did not receive one.  On Tuesday I started going back to the secretary to ask if there was any news.  I repeated this on Wednesday and Thursday.  The answer was always no.  So on Friday we changed our plans and we changed the activity from a stationary one to a roving one.

At about 12:30 on Friday the missionaries arrived - all on the same bus.  They looked awesome as they got off the bus and arrived at our chapel.  They truly looked like the army of the Paris Mission.

When they got to the chapel we had lunch for them.  We had Branch members come and help with this.  We served ham, tomato, cucumber, lettuce and tomato sandwiches on baguettes.  We also had chips, apples, water and Belgian waffles made by one of our Branch members.  The missionaries got a little instruction and headed out.

Here's how it worked.  We had three stations that we all rotated through.  One station was our pre-life stage.  One was our earthly life stage and one was our after life stage.  We had questions, answers, visuals, cards and informations.  We talked to people and shared information with them orally or in a written format.

Overall, 18 members and Friends of our Branch helped out.  Some worked side by side with the missionaries, some helped with the meal and some just came out to support.  We talked to a lot of people and handed out material.  We talked to some less active members.  We shared what we knew and we were well received.  We certainly increased our visibility in Charleville-Mézières.  Afterward we met back at the chapel.  We shared some testimonies and said a closing prayer.  The young missionaries left.  I don't think Charleville will ever see that level of missionary work again.

Of course we did other things this week.  We taught lessons, visited member homes and did some preparation for our upcoming Missionary Couples Conference.  Truly the hand of the Lord was with us in all that we did.  

When we visited one of our member's houses in Belgium we were in for a special treat.  She had made some delicious banana ice cream and covered it with wild fruit that she had collected herself.
On the way back from Belgium after our Home Teaching visit we stopped at a cool spot.  We climbed up to the rock where you could see 7 villages by looking in different directions.  What a beautiful view and an amazing panorama.  Seven villages - wow!  Only in France.

 The other Blitz we experienced this week was a construction job which we watched the progress of from our balcony.  Last week we got a note in our box saying that they were going to redo the sidewalk on the other side of our street.  The project was quite amazing.  On Monday they started.  There was a crew of about eight city workers dressed in orange fluorescent suits.  They literally attacked the job.  They didn't waste any time.  They tore up the sidewalk first.  As they dug up entryways to businesses and buildings they replaced them with temporary ones.  As they rebuilt the sidewalk they constructed new entryways out of paving stones.  They replaced some sewer grates.  They widened the entry to the school.  They used concrete where needed and tarred the sidewalk in a half day.  The whole job took 4 and a half days from start to finish.  They worked like ants.  It was quite interesting to watch.  Most of the work was done by hand or hand held machinery.  

Today at church was great.  We had 28 people in attendance.  We had a Branch Council meeting.  We discussed some things to help support our new members.  We had a Branch meal which was super and we truly felt the spirit in our meetings, our lessons and during our talks.

We love being on our mission and we love what we do.  We thank you for your support.

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

Chop Chop

Sunday, August 16, 2015

We had a great evening last night.  We participated in our first ever chop chop.  As you are reading this I am sure you are asking what in  blue blazes is that.  In our Branch we have a number of African Friends of the Church.  Most of these are from Nigeria.  This week during one of our lessons one of our Nigerian members asked us and the younger missionaries over for supper for what she called a chop chop.

As it turns out a chop chop is a Nigerian meal with friends.  We walked to her apartment.  She and another of our Friends had prepared a meal that included chicken, beef, a yam dough called poundo iyan and dish made with ground melon seeds, peppers, palm oil, and spinach.  They had bought the special ingredients in Paris at an African store.  

We sat around a table and we got a portion of each food item on our plates.  Before we began we each washed our hands in a bowl of water.  We had no utensils but ate with our fingers by taking the dough, flattening it and scooping the melon seeds with it.  The melon seeds and chicken were spiced somewhat.  We ate the meat with our hands, as well.  It was a great meal and tasted good.  

While we ate we talked and visited.  There was Nigerian Christian music playing in the background.  The younger missionaries brought some drinks and we brought homemade cookies.  We finished off the evening by us giving a spiritual message.  It was a very pleasant time.  We ate well, laughed and shared stories.

Another first happened this week.  We finalised the turn over of the couple's apartment in Nancy back to the owner.  This apartment had been empty since the beginning of the year.  It was our base whenever we had business to tend to in Nancy.  With assistance from the Relief Society president and the Nancy Zone Leaders we were able to empty the apartment out by using some of the items in other missionary apartments and by giving some things away to ward members who were in need.  

Once the apartment was empty there was cleaning to do.  We also had to go through what is called an "état des lieux" which literally means a state of the place.  It is a detailed inspection with an inspector.  He goes through the entire apartment to assess any damages or anything that may be missing.  This was not a problem but was somewhat time consuming.  It was interesting, though.

Since we were in Nancy we decided to do some apartment checks ourselves.  We inspected 5 missionary apartments in Luxembourg, Mulhouse, Belfort and Épinal.  This is always a great time to connect with the younger missionaries.  We brought each missionary team a macaron treat.  These are tasty little pastry goodies.  We were also able to bring supplies that they needed because they were lacking or because they simply needed replacing.

The apartments were all good.  The missionaries were great.  We were excited to meet Elder Kendrick in Mulhouse.  He is Jolene and Norm Goslings grandson from our home ward in Lethbridge.  He is doing wonderful there and loving his mission.  

Elder Kendrick on Splits with Elder Johnson, one of the Zone Leaders from Strasbourg

Elder Koanua and Elder Rollins in Belfort

Elder Edmunds in Epinal

Elder Adams on splits with our District Leader Elder Ericsson from Saskatoon

Our Elders having a fun moment.  They always love to put funny photo's on our Ipad.

We are very fortunate to work with such great young men and women.  They are always great examples of faith, obedience and diligence to us.  We see this at our district meetings, at our zone meetings and at our apartment checks.  We are blessed and grateful for our associations with these young people.

Mulhouse Center.  We took a stroll just around 8:30 pm after finishing the apartment checks here.  We loved it.

Crocheted Dyed Doilies wrapped around a tree in Mulhouse.  Facinating.

Mulhouse - beautiful city

Mulhouse - All of this is a mural on the side of a building.  AMAZING!

Love this.  Typical French airing out the bedding in Belfort near the Elders apartment.

Epinal view as we were crossing the canal

A fascinating game we want to make.  We saw it in a store window.  They were playing this game in Paris in the Roman Arena we saw.

This week we also said goodbye to my brother, Darrell on Monday in Paris.  He flies home tomorrow.  We spent the morning with him on Monday by going on a river cruise on the Seine, which winds through lots of historic Paris.  Then we had lunch and headed back to Charleville.  We had a wonderful time.  How lucky we were to have been able to spend time with him.

Tuesday was our district meeting.  We had another great lesson and another great meal.  We had pasta, salad, cake and drinks.  This was another great example of the valiant young missionaries that we get to work with.  

We filled out the week with teaching visits and doing some preparations for our upcoming Couples Conference.

Today at church we had 19 people.  We met a new Friend of the Church who was there with her 14 year old son.  They both were amazing.  We got along great and they really seemed to enjoy our meetings.  How awesome!

Well that's all we have for this week.  May the Lord bless all of you!

Au revoir de la France
Lyndi-lou and Eddie too