How quickly the time passes! Our two youngest grandchildren turn 12 and 11 this month. We pray for all our grandchildren and children. It is both a harsh and glorious world we are living in.
We love the Wednesdays when we have zone conference. It is great to be together with the young elders and sisters but mostly we learn from our Pres. and his wife. We studied the parable of the talents but tied it in with spiritual gifts and faith unto miracles. I learned that a monetary talent is the equivalent of 16 years of work. Pres. Schow told us about vacuuming the carpet in the celestial room of the Kansas City Temple in preparation for the open house. He was asking himself why he was doing this when it was spotless. He realized he was not doing this because it was dirty but to always keep it clean. Then he taught us about false dichotomies.
We spent a lovely afternoon visiting, dining, and walking in Lyon with the Nevilles - another of the fascinating couples serving here. Their calling is to interview pioneers in the area.
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| Cooling off in the fountain |
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| Lyon Hôtel de Ville |
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| Fountain by Bartholdi, who also did the statue of Liberty |
Tom and I are in charge of 4 (young) missionary apartments: Chalon, Dijon, Besançon, and one in Geneva. We spent 5 1/2 hours this week getting rid of stuff left by probably six sets of missionaries who did not believe in throwing things out or giving things away. We bagged clothes, shoes, binders, games, color by numbers, pens, pencil crayons, cloth grocery sacs etc. Those we gave to two families. We carried close to 200 hundred pounds out of their cupboards to the garbage and to our car. This week we will deliver 70 hard cover Books of Mormon, mostly in Arabic but several other more obscure languages, over 500 pamphlets in English and Arabic and more bags meant for the mission office. Now the young soeurs have a place to put their shoes, the canned goods, the Christmas decorations, p-day equipment and their books. I joked that we should have taken before and after photos. Meanwhile Tom was installing a new shower head, fixing a lock so the bathroom door would shut and working on all the folding doors in the apt. and arranged for a company to haul away the moldy couch and chairs off the balcony. Who knew he would become a handyman on this mission?
We are grateful that some days are quiet and we can do the laundry and make a good dinner and watch a movie or read a book. There is much I will miss when we leave France - the history, the physical beauty of the countryside, the bread, cheese and fresh fruit and the diligent members of the church. We consider it a great blessing to serve here.
P.S. Last week our mission had 1004 media referrals. WOW
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